290 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



confident that my culture fruit-bodies are only a form of Aleuria 

 vesiculosa.^ 



Results of a Previous Investigation on Aleuria vesiculosa.— The 

 following is a summary of the results of my investigation on the 

 production and hberation of spores in Aleuria vesiculosa (erroneously 

 identified as Peziza repanda) recorded in 1909 in Volume I of these 

 Researches ^ : 



" The spores of Aleuria vesiculosa are shot up into the air to a 

 height of 2-3 cm. The eight spores from an ascus separate from 

 one another almost immediately after leaving the ascus mouth, and 

 are then carried off by the wind. The fact that the ascus jet breaks 

 up on leaving the ascus was observed by means of the beam-of-light 

 method. 



^ In 1910 I sent some of my culture fruit-bodies to Dr. E. J. Durand, who wrote 

 to me as foUows regarding them. " The plant does not seem to me to be P. repanda 

 but to belong more properly in the vicinity of P. vesiculosa as you suggest. It has 

 seemed to me for some time that the latter species is very variable or that several 

 species are confused under this name, which can ultimately be separated. Typical 

 vesiculosa, as I imderstand it, is usually pale in colour, sessile, semitransparent, and 

 the opening contracted and small. This evidently is not your plant. The so-called 

 variety cerea comes nearer to it ; but, still nearer, it seems to me is the plant described 

 by Vuillemin in the Proc. of the French Ass. for the Adv. of Science for 1886 under 

 the name Aleuria Asterigma, p. 491, pi. 10. This you will notice is stipitate and 

 repand, and has an Aspergillus-like conidial stage. Rehm {Discomycetes, p. 1018) 

 mentions Oedocephulum fimetarium as the conidial stage of P. vesiculosa, and this is 

 very similar to and doubtfully distinct from the conidial stage mentioned by 

 Vuillemin. To be sure, the conidia of the latter are slightly smaller than in 

 Oe. fimetarium and the germination of the spores is slightly dift'erent. The last 

 feature may well be due to difference in culture medium. It seems to me we have 

 here three very closely related forms which may be regarded as forms of one variable 

 species, or which cultures may finally show to be distinct in the conidial condition. 

 Your plant I think belongs to the form now known as Aleuria Asterigma (or Peziza 

 Asterigma), but cultures will be necessary to determine the nature of the conidial 

 stage." 



In making the remarks just quoted Durand took into account not only the 

 fruit-bodies sent to him but also my drawings, including the conidial stage, shown 

 in Vol. I of these Researches, Figs. 77, 78, and 79 (pp. 235, 236, and 241). Boudier 

 in his Icones Mycologicae illustrates Aleuria Asterigma and shows every fruit-body 

 with a well-developed stipe. My culture fruit-bodies differ from those shown in 

 Boudier's illustrations in that while some have well-developed stipes others are 

 quite sessile like typical A. vesiculosa. 



2 These Researches, Vol. I, 1909, pp. 233-250, Figs. 77-79 ; summary on p. 268. 

 In quoting from the summary, as above, I have substituted the correct name 

 Aleuria vesiculosa for the erroneous one Peziza repanda. 



