214 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



On dung in the north of Italy. 



Morini (in Mem. Accad. Sci. 1st. Bologna, ser. 6, vol. vi, pp. 123-4, 

 f. 6-8, 1909) describes a var. geminata of this species. He says that 

 the trophocyst may produce two hyphae at a time or, if one only, 

 the one may branch into two above. He asserts that these forms 

 remained constant in repeated artificial cultures. I suspect that the 

 var. geminata is nothing more than an abnormal form ; for, since 

 normally a Pilobolus sporangiophore collapses at the moment of 

 discharging its sporangium, a forked sporangiophore can shoot away 

 only one of its sporangia and not both. Abnormal branched spor- 

 angiophores are occasionally met with in other species, and are figured 

 by Coemans in P. crijstallinus, by Klein in P. Kleinii (his P. crystal- 

 linus), and have been seen by Zopf and Grove also in P. Kleinii. 



12. Pilobolus argentinus Spegazzini, Fung. Argent. I, p. 176 

 (1880). Sacc. Syll. vii. 187. 



Sporangiophores " immersed," here and there densely gregarious, 

 5-6 mm. high, at first cylindric-clavate, then filiform below, with 

 a trophocyst and an ellipsoid subsporangial swelling, the whole 

 plant entirely yellow. Sporangium globose, 100-125 \l diam., ohve- 

 black above, greenish-yellow below ; spores spherical, 12-15 [x diam., 

 thick-walled, filled with a greenish-yellow granular protoplasm. 



On horse dung, in grassy places alongside the Rio de la Plata. 

 Judging by the description, one would consider this only a form of 

 P. oedipus. 



13. Pilobolus roseus Speg. Fung. Argent. I, p. 175 (1880). Sacc. 



Syll. vii. 187. 



Sporangiophores densely gregarious, 2-4-5 mm. high, at first 

 clavate, rosy-orange, truncate at the rounded apex, then filiform 

 below, ellipsoid or ventricose-spheroid above, very beautifully rosy- 

 hyahne. Sporangium black, hemispherical, 300-400 \i diam. ; 

 spores ellipsoid, obtusely rounded at the ends, granular within, 

 rosy-hyaline, 12-16 x 7-8 [x. 



On cow dung, near the Rio de la Plata. This species might well 

 be merely a form of P. Kleinii ; its chief distinction seems to reside 

 in its colour, but a rosy hue is not unknown in some other species of 

 Pilobolus. 



