288 A MANUAL OF THE PENICILLIA 



collaborators from all over the world. Among these NRRL 2014, isolated 

 from Nicaragua soil in October 1945, may be regarded as representative. 



Members of this series are among the most abundant of all the soil 

 Penicillia. Individual strains differ from one another in rate of growth, 

 colony appearance, amount of sporulation, and, to a lesser degree, in the 

 character of their spore-bearing structures. These, however, are believed 

 to represent only variant strains in a single cosmopolitan and unusually 

 abundant species of saprophytic molds. 



Under continued laboratory cultivation, strains commonly tend to be- 

 come increasingly floccose and to lose their capacit^y to sporulate freely. 



Penicillium amelhystinum Wehiner (nomen nudum) was cited by Biourge (Mono- 

 graph, La Cellule 33: fasc. 1, pp. 221-222; Col. PI. VI, PI. X, fig. 56. 1923) as a syno- 

 nym of P. (Scopidariopsis) ruhellum Rainier. Two cultures apparently representing 

 Biourge's concept of this species were received from him, labeled P. amelhystinum 

 Wehmer and P . ruhellum Bainier. Both proved to be P. lilacinum Thom. Whereas 

 the binomial P. amethysiinum, would be beautifully descriptive of certain members of 

 the P. lilacinum series that produce exudate and colony reverse in bright reddish 

 purple ("amethyst") shades, no description has been found to cover the use of this 

 name by Wehmer, and recognition as a species separate from P. lilacinum is not war- 

 ranted. 



Spicaria violacea Abbott, in Iowa State College Jour. Sci. 1: 26, fig. 3* 



1926. See also Oilman and Abbott, Iowa State College Jour. Sci. 



1:301. 1926; and Thom, The Penicillia, p. 335. 1930. 



Colonies on Czapek's solution agar attaining a diameter of 3.0 to 3.5 

 cm. in 10 days at room temperature, floccose, loose-textured, 1 to 2 mm. 

 or more deep (fig. 77C), with central colony areas commonly raised, 

 radially furrowed in some strains, not in others, at first white but de- 

 veloping lavender or pale blue-violet shades (Ridgway, PI. XXX^'I) with 

 the production of mature conidial structures, uniformly colored throughout 

 or with marginal areas in deeper shades; odor indefinite or lacking; exu- 

 date lacking or limited, yellow to amber when present; reverse at first 

 colorless but quickly assuming bright yellow shades with the surrounding 

 agar usually colored in like manner. Conidial structures usually abun- 

 dant, very irregular in size and pattern, verticillate or penicillate, with ver- 

 ticils of metulae and sterigmata present in large structures, or sterigmata 

 only in smaller fruits, with elements strongly divergent (fig. 78) and with 

 long conidial chains characteristically tangled in age. Conidial structures 

 borne upon branches arising from aeriaj hyphae, often at successive levels, 

 usually less than 100^ in length, or upon longer conidiophores up to 500m 

 by 2.5 to S.OfjL that arise directly from the substratum. Irrespective of its 

 origin or complexity, the conidial apparatus is typically characterized by 

 its strongly divergent aspect (fig. 78A) and its conspicuously tapered sterig- 



