282 A MANUAL OF THE PENICILLIA 



our laboratory since 1928, presented the same cultural picture as the two 

 preceding cultures, but thus far, has failed to produce the characteristic 

 masses of thick-walled cells although it too produces a marginal brown zone 

 in malt agar. 



In the type strain of Penicillium soppi, sclerotia-like structures are 

 limited to small irregular masses of thick-walled parenchyma-like cells 

 strongly suggestive of the hiille cells of some Aspergilli (fig. 75E), par- 

 ticularly Aspergillus granulosus Raper and Thom (1944). One culture, 

 NRRL 701, has been examined which produces colonies and develops 

 conidial structures essentially like NRRL 2023, but consistently produces 

 abundant hard sclerotia upon all media emploj^ed. A decision as to 

 whether this should be regarded as a new species, or the description of 

 P. soppi broadened to include it, must await the examination of additional 

 strains approximating the cultures in question. Also to be considered is 

 the possibility that NRRL 701 represents in effect a variant of P. rais- 

 trickii Smith which fails to develop the tj^ical rugose character of its 

 conidiophores. 



Thom (1930) placed Penicillium soppi Zaleski in his section Lanata- 

 Divaricata upon the character of its penicilli which he noted as consisting 

 of variously branching, divergent groups of 2 to several monoverticillate 

 branches. This placement appears to be satisfactory, and the production 

 of sclerotia-like masses of thick-walled cells seems to relate it particularly 

 to the series embracing P. pulvillorum and P. raistrickii. 



Penicillium matris-meae Zaleski (in Bui. Acad. Polonaise Sci.: Math, et Nat. Ser. 

 B, pp. 477-479, Taf. 45 and 52. 1927) must be regarded as a synonym of his P. soppi. 

 Careful examination of the descriptions of the two species reveals that they were 

 described in almost identical terms, and no significant difference can be observed 

 from his figures. The fact that two cultures, presumably Zaleski's type strains of 

 P. soppi and P. matris-meae, proved to be exact duplicates further confirms the iden- 

 tity of the two species. 



Penicillium rolfsii Thom, in U. S. Dept. Agr,, Bur. Anim. Ind., Bui. 118; 



pp. 80-81, fig. 36, 1910, as Penicillium No, 32. Described by 



Thom in The Penicillia, pp. 489-490, fig. 86. 1930. 



Author's description (abstracted): 



Colonies upon milk-sugar-gelatin and potato or bean agar gray -green; floccose, 

 but with aerial part consisting mostly of long conidiophores and few vegetative hy- 

 phae, slightly yellowish to pronounced salmon color below; broadly spreading; de- 

 veloping white to pink elliptical to globose sclerotia 150 to 200/i in diameter at the 

 surface of the substratum in 2 to 3 weeks; odor none; conidiophores 200 to 500// by 3.0 

 to 4.0//; penicilli consisting of verticils of 3 to 5 branches (metulae) 10 to 17// by 2.0 

 to 3.0//, rarely showing secondary verticils, each bearing a dense verticil of sterigmata, 



