HELOTIACEAE 259 



singly and may mature on green leaves. Their development has 

 not been studied. None possesses a conidial stage. 



Cryptofny cilia pteridis, widely distributed in Europe and North 

 America, causes leaf roll of bracken fern, Pteridiwn lathis cidimi. 

 Recent studies by Bache-Wiig (1940) show that the mycelium 

 perennates in the buds. The conidial stage is of the Cylindro- 

 sporium type. Young tissues, even those of prothallia, became 

 infected after artificial inoculation. 



Helotiaceae. This family contains numerous parasitic and 

 saprophytic species, arranged by Nannfeldt (1932) into 9 tribes. 

 Their apothecia generally are superficial from the beginning and 

 are fleshy, leathery, or corneous in texture with rather thick 

 excipula. 



Among the Trichocyphelloideae is Dasyscypha, called Tricho- 

 cyphella by Nannfeldt, characterized by apothecia the outer sur- 

 face of which is densely covered with long white hairs. Accord- 

 ing to Saccardo's Sylloge Fiingorimi, this genus contains approxi- 

 mately 150 species. Its best-known member is D. ivUlkoijmiii, 

 causing larch canker in Europe. This fungus was introduced into 

 Europe early in the eighteenth century, and the literature on for- 

 est pathology contains many controversial articles regarding it. 

 Recently it was introduced into New England but was eradi- 

 cated by the destruction of all infected larch trees. At the same 

 time a great deal of confusion arose from the finding of a species 

 of Dasyscypha, at first thought to be the larch-canker pathogen, 

 on Douglas fir, Fseiidotsiiga taxifoUa. Hahn and Ayers (1934a), 

 however, determined that the organism on Douglas fir is D. elli- 

 siana, an indigenous species, commonly occurring as a saprophyte 

 on pines. They (1934b) also determined that D. pini occurs on 

 species of five-needled pines in the Pacific Northwest. In 1892 

 this fungus was first described as Lachnella pini from collections 

 on Scots pine in Scandinavia. The details of these studies by 

 Hahn and Ayers are contained in the reports just mentioned 

 (1934a, 1934b) and those on other species of Dasyscypha in an 

 earlier report (1934). 



Sclerotinia. None of the Discomycetes is of greater economic 

 importance than are those usually included in Sclerotinia, belong- 

 ing in the Tribe Ciborioideae. In Engler and Prantl's Die natiir- 

 lichen Pflauzenfajjiilien, Schroeter divided Sclerotinia into 2 sub- 

 genera, Stromatinia and Eusclerotinia. In Stromatinia he placed 



