TWO REMARKABLE ASCOMYCETES. 427 



as the lobes extend outward. This fertile region is, as indicated in 

 Figure 1, A, broader than the adherent base, whicli is dehmited by a 

 black line. The perithecia, with their well developed necks, are 

 closely associated in this positioft, and almost completely immersed; 

 becoming prominent only when the stroma is shrunken by drying or 

 by alcohol, the ostioles appearing as darker points. 



Karsten mentions the fact that the European species is sometimes 

 sterile, and the specimen in the Harvard copy of his Fungi Fenniae, 

 No. 664, appears to be in this condition, and looks as if it might per- 

 haps be parasitized. A specimen in the Curtis collection, however, is 

 normally fertile, as are all the indi\'iduals of the new species which have 

 been examined. 



The surface of the stroma in the Carolina form is cinnamon to clay 

 color or sayal brown, according to Ridgway, when dry, with a tinge of 

 orange when fresh; dense, firm, whitish within; a very thin layer of 

 looser filaments forming the surface of contact with the substratum, 

 and, as indicated in the figure, subtending a clear black line which is 

 also present in the European form. The venters of the perithecia are 

 subspherical or broadly flask-shaped, the immersed necks well de- 

 veloped and stout. Although, in his description, Karsten speaks of 

 the perithecia as "parietibus destituta" the structure in this respect 

 is like that of other stromatic Hypocreales in both species. 



The sporiferous portion of the asci is cylindrical, the characteristic 

 termination, Figure 1, B and C, tapering rather abruptly to form a 

 short blunt point. The base is also relatively short and tapers rather 

 abruptly to its insertion. The spores are uniseriate, broadly elliptical 

 to subspherical, discrete, or usually one to eight firmly coherent. 

 Figure 1, C-E; normally once septate; the septum median, horizontal 

 or oblique to vertical; less often continuous, the surface often coarsely 

 roughened by accretions of residual protoplasm (E), the coherent, 

 surfaces flattened. A comparison of these spores with Figure 1, F 

 which represents three spores from the Curtis specimen of the European 

 form, will show clearly that the two are certainly distinct, and in the 

 new species no tendency to variation, beyond that indicated in the 

 figures, has been observed. 



The radiating stroma, Plate I, may be orbicular or nearly so, when 

 growing f)n a large liml) or tnmk, and may reach a diameter of 10 cm. ; 

 while on smaller brandies the segifients soon meet and mingle on the 

 side opposite to their origin, clasping the branch and becoming more 

 or less confused, while those more nearly coincident with its long 

 axes continue to grow along it in opposite directions. As has been 



