THE ASPERGILLUS NIDULANS GROUP 165 



The above description is based primarily upon a culture received from 

 Prof. Verona in Italy and carried in our collection as NRRL No. 212 (Thorn 

 No. 5602.3). 



Bliss forwarded a culture (NRRL No. 214) isolated from date fruits in 

 California which differs from the above in the following particulars: (1) 

 Conidial heads are produced abundantly, (2) the mycelium is not predomi- 

 nantly submerged, and (3) the colonies in reverse are deep purple. How- 

 ever, the ascospores of the two strains are strikingly similar in size and 

 pattern, the perithecia of each appear pyriform in shape, and the conidial 

 structures of the two are essentially alike. More recently a strain has been 

 isolated from Arizona soil (NRRL No. 1954) which produces abundant large 

 "stalked" perithecia but very few small perithecia or conidial heads. 

 There is, thus, evidence of considerable natural variation among members of 

 this species. All of these strains have the same type of stellate ascospore. 



Since the type of ascospore described here had already been assigned to 

 Emericella and Inzengaea, consideration of the literature of these genera is 

 necessary. 



Emericella variecolor, genus and species new, was described by Berkeley 

 and Broome in 1357 as doubtfully a Gasteromycete or possibly a lichen. 

 The perithecium with a mass of stellate spores was considered as gastro- 

 mycetous in character while what we now recognize as the "hulle" cells of 

 Eidam (figured) suggested to them the possibility of an algal associate. 

 Berkeley's material was also examined by Montague and part of it deposited 

 in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris. This was reexamined by 

 Patouillard in 1891 and its ascomycetous nature determined. No conidial 

 apparatus was found by either Berkeley or Patouillard. 



Inzengaea erythrospora as the type species of a new ascomycetous genus 

 was figured and described by Borzi in 1885, showing stellate red ascospores, 

 and the hulle cells of Eidam. Borzi 's figure showed a coremium-like conid- 

 ial apparatus which was designated Coremium Borzianum by Saccardo. 

 Ed. Fisher in 1893 transferred the species to Emericella of Berkeley and 

 placed the genus next to Aspergillus in the "Pflanzenjamilien." Saccardo 

 (in Syll. 9: 610) on the other hand accepted Inzengaea and dropped Emeri- 

 cella because of the errors in description and placement by Berkeley. Borzi 

 figured the spores of A. variecolor {Inzengaea erythrospora) correctly but 

 obviously misinterpreted the germination of the ascospores since he showed 

 them splitting as if turned 90°, bringing the crest perpendicular to the 

 center of the valve instead of attached to its edges. 



There the taxonomic situation stood until Vuillemin in 1927 concluded 

 that the ascosporic apparatus, the stellate red ascospores and the cells of 

 Eidam, as clearly shown in their figures and material, showed the identity 



