286 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



On bread, Cambridge, Massachusetts; mouse dung, Duarte, Cali- 

 fornia. 



This form which appears to be identical with Helicosporangium 

 parasiticum Karst. was found by Dr. Thaxter on bread in Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, and kept as an herbarium specimen, but was too old to 

 be resuscitated. The writer also found it on a gross culture of mouse 

 dung in an old paper bag obtained from Duarte, California. This 

 culture was so overgrown with Penicillium and other foreign material 

 which grew so much more rapidly than the bulbiferous fungus that it 

 was difficult to get it pure. This was finally accomplished by using a 

 gross culture of sterilized peas on which the mycelium of the bulbil 

 grows quite rapidly. 



The bulbils. — The development of the bulbils, which are produced 

 in large numbers, agrees in all essential points with the original de- 

 scription and figures of Karsten ('65). Short lateral branches of the 

 hyphae coil up crosier-fashion and, although quite open at first, soon 

 close up, forming a close coil which divides into short cells, all of which 

 increase in size to a certain degree. One of these, usually the end cell, 

 but not infrequently the second, enlarges more rapidly than the 

 others and becomes a "central cell," the remaining members of the 

 coil forming a ring or "annulus" around it and becoming firmly at- 

 tached to the side of the original lateral branch. As this central cell 

 increases in size more rapidly than those of the coil, considerable 

 lateral pressure is exerted and consequently protuberances usually 

 appear on each side of it which usually becomes subpendent and 

 subsequently may divide into two or three lobes (Figures 4, 5, 9, 10, 

 Plate 5). As this tension is released, probably through the increase 

 in size of the "annulus," the large central cell loses its lobed appear- 

 ance and assumes a spherical form (Figure 11, Plate 5) and may later 

 become somewhat angular. 



In the meantime the cells composing the "annulus" begin to grow- 

 out laterally, extending over the surface of the large central cell, and 

 in the mature bulbil completely corticating it, the walls adjacent 

 adhering laterally. Sometimes there is a small pore left at one or 

 both of the centers of the lateral faces of the central cell and through 

 them at germination the germ tube grows, but this is the exception and 

 is probably one of the incomplete stages of development that will be 

 spoken of later. 



During the early stages of development and even until they have 

 almost reached their full development these bulbils are colorless, but 

 eventually they become light brown. At maturity they are nearly 



