138 A MANUAL OF THE ASPERGILLI 



of this series as allied species. To perpetuate an assignment to a subdivi- 

 sion entitled the Microaspergilli, as suggested by some authors, would com- 

 plicate nomenclature without compensating values. The series is, there- 

 fore, keyed as a part of the great A. glaucus group. 



Series diagnosis: Perithecia not found. Colonies growing weakly 

 or restrictedly upon Czapek's solution agar, more freely upon wort agar, 

 especially well on high concentrations of sugar or salt; green, dark green, 

 grayish-green, to brownish-green in various strains and under varying 

 conditions; surface growth consisting of conidiophores only, or of mycelial 

 felts more or less buckled or heaped; conidiophores smooth, slender, more 

 or less sinuous, septate; vesicles vary from convex or lens-like areas on the 

 broadened apices of conidiophores to definitely ovate to globose enlarge- 

 ments, fertile over all or the upper fraction of such surfaces; heads mostly 

 definitely columnar, less commonly radiate, hemispherical or almost glo- 

 bose, especially when young; sterigmata in one series, mostly closely packed 

 over the fertile area, varying from 2 to 3m by 5 to 6m up to 3 to 4/x by 6 to 

 10m; conidia barrel-shaped to ovate, mostly in dark greenish shades, smooth 

 or slowly becoming echinulate or roughened as in the A. glaucus group, 

 commonly adherent into long chains which are packed into columns. 



Series Key 



A. Conidiophores broadening upward to produce a convex vesicular apex varying 



from 8 to 20m in diameter, producing a long slender column of conidia 



A. gracilis Bainier 



B. Conidiophores broadening more abruptly, forming a more definite vesicular area. 



1. Vesicles more convex, toward hemispherical. 



a. Slime development evident A. conicus Bloch. 



b. Slime absent or not conspicuous A. restrictus G. Smith 



2. Vesicles ovate to hemispherical, columns of conidial chains more or less 



conspicuous A . penicilloides Speg. 



Differences between the above may appear to be of somewhat minor 

 character. Nevertheless, each of the sections accounts for sufficient litera- 

 ture to necessitate separate consideration . 



Aspergillus gracilis Bainier, in Bui. Soc. Myc. France, 23: 92, pi. IX, figs. 



11-14. 1907. 



Colonies on Czapek's solution agar very slow growing, reaching a diam- 

 eter of only a few millimeters in several weeks (fig. 36A), variously plane 

 or convoluted or buckled with close textured mycelium at first white, then 

 slowly green to very dark green, with radiating lines of vegetative mycelium 

 about the denser area of the colony, growing somewhat better upon wort 

 agar and upon Czapek's agar containing high concentrations of sugar, re- 

 verse in yellowish shades, conidial heads in columns up to 200 or 300m long 



