ASPERGILLUS NIGER GROUP 235 



II. Colonies umber; conidiophores 1 to 3 mm.; reverse reticulated, dark 



reddish-brown; conidia smooth or nearly so A. Schiemanni Thorn 



Syn. A. fuscus Schiemann 

 III. Colonies reddish salmon; conidiophores 1, 2, or even 3 mm.; reverse 

 slightly wrinkled, uncolored, or pale cream; conidia smooth 



A. cinnamomeus Schiemann 



C. Conidia 3 to 5m, globose, smooth, slightly colored; vesicles globose; conidiophores 



up to 1 mm., slender ; primary sterigmata 12 to 20m; colonies appearing somewhat 

 granular, deep brown; reverse olive passing to bronze; mycelium sulphur yellow 

 at first A . citricus (Wehmer) Mosseray 



D. Conidia 3 to 5m, globose or elliptical, smooth or slightly rough ; colonies violaceous. 



a. Sterigmata in two series; vesicles globose; colonies purplish-violet or mauve; 



reverse violet-brown: conidia 3 to 5m, globose, smooth, uncolored 



A. awamori Usami 



b. Sterigmata in one series, short; vesicles subglobose; colonies in violaceous 



shades to mauve. 



Colonies mauve ("violet livide"), reverse uncolored, wrinkled; conidia 

 globose or obovate, smooth 3 to 5m in long axis; sporulation slow; narrowly 

 growing A . malvaceus Mosseray 



Colonies violaceous or dark violet slate; reverse dark yellow or orange, 

 slightly wrinkled; conidia globose and rough, 3 to 4.5m; sporulation very 

 rapid, and colonies broadly spreading, with sclerotia common on rice or 

 other "natural" substrata, rare upon sugar media A.japonicus Saito 



Colonies violet-brown; reverse purplish-brown, wrinkled; conidia globose, 

 rough, 3 to 5m in long axis; sporulation slow and more or less incompletely 

 covering the surface; dwarf heads abundant. .A. atro-violaceus Mosseray 



Colonies dark brown or carob brown, with a mealy or granular appearance, 

 reverse dark brown, or olive at the margins, wrinkled; conidia smooth, 

 globose, 2.5 to 4m; vesicles globose or pyriform; primary sterigmata 3.5 to 

 7.5m in diameter -4.. atro-fuscus Mosseray 



If the material available for study were limited to Biourge's 63 cultures, 

 identification to strain, variety, or species might be possible. When Mos- 

 seray subsequently returned to Brussels as Mycologist at the Jardin 

 Botanique de l'Etat and was confronted by hundreds of other strains 

 largely from the Belgian Congo, many of which presented further varia- 

 tion, he began to see the impossibility of describing them all in terms which 

 would permit subsequent identification. Biourge at that point (personal 

 conference) withdrew his support from many of the diagnostic features 

 accepted in Mosseray's memoire and agreed to the proposal that specific 

 names in black Aspergilli could only be serviceable as bringing together 

 aggregates of strains showing common and fairly dependable morphological 

 characters. This was the attitude held by Thorn and Church in The 

 Aspergilli (1926) based upon the examination of many hundreds of black 

 Aspergilli, and it remains the position of the writers at this time. 



Since variation is characteristic of the whole genus — not one group 



