Chapter VII 

 MONOVERTICILLATA 



The Monoverticillata constitutes an aggregate of series and species bound 

 together by the arbitrary fact that the penicillus consists of a single cluster, 

 or verticil, of sterigmata at the tip of a fertile hypha, or conidiophore. This 

 fertile hypha is usually unbranched, but in those sections in which branch- 

 ing occurs the individuality of the terminal verticil of sterigmata, each 

 producing a chain of conidia, is maintained. Naturally this division of the 

 genus includes the larger part of the species included by Biourge in his 

 subgenus Monoverticillium, by Dierckx in Aspergilloides, and by Wehmer, 

 Bainier and Sartory, and others iii Citromyces. 



Very few species are absolutely monoverticillate — that is, produce conid- 

 iophores entirely without branching below the terminal cell which bears 

 the verticil of sterigmata. In the majority of species, however, only an 

 occasional conidiophore shows a branch bearing a similar penicillus. In a 

 single series, designated the Ramigena, the fertile hypha or conidiophore is 

 nearly always branched at various septa, with the branches varying in 

 length and usually diverging and not assuming the over-all appearance of a 

 characteristic brush or broom. The identity of each branch as a strictly 

 monoverticillate penicillus is usually evident. 



In the Penicillium javanicimi series the species are ascosporic, with peri- 

 thecia typically developing first as parenchymatous to sclerotioid bodies 

 and subsequently ripening from the center outward. The P. iiiomii series 

 is characterized by the production of true sclerotia which, in appearance 

 and texture, may simulate the perithecia just noted, but which never de- 

 velop an ascosporic phase. 



The name Citromyces proposed by Wehmer (1893) was based upon two 

 particular citric acid producing cultures, before he knew the wide range of 

 species which would be included within the morphological limits proposed 

 for his genus. Wehmer's description assumed that the conidiophore was 

 always unbranched, hence produced a single apical verticil of sterigmata. 

 On this basis the line between Citromyces and Pcriicilliu7n was sharp. 



Sopp (1912) and Bainier and Sartory (1912 and 1913) used the name 

 Citromyces. Dierckx created his subgenus Aspergilloides for the whole 

 group of monoverticillate forms. Biourge used the name Aspergilloides 

 in his discussion on page 31 (Monograph, 1923) and proposed the subgenus 

 Monoverticillium. He made the characterization broad enough to include 

 all species in which the individuality of the ultimate verticil of sterigmata 

 was maintained, even though its stalk had become a part of a fairly definite 



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