THE ASPERGILLUS TAMARII GROUP 255 



at first colorless, then passing through orange-yellow shades to brown in 

 old colonies, variously Isabella color, light brownish-olive, buffy-citrine, 

 medal bronze, or raw umber (PI. VII B) (Ridgway, Pis. XXX, XVI, and 

 IV, Column 19, and PI. Ill, Column 17); not showing true green, but often 

 presenting a suggestion of green that is transient and limited to areas of 

 young heads; reverse uncolored or occasionally pinkish. Conidial heads 

 varying greatly in size in the same fruiting area, from more or less columnar 

 to nearly, but not completely, globose and up to 300m in diameter, with 

 radiating chains and columns of conidia. Conidiophores arising from 

 submerged hyphae, up to 1 to 2 mm. in length, colorless, with walls be- 

 coming abruptly thinner at the base of the vesicle, frequently showing 

 irregular thickenings within, as a rule markedly rough or pitted throughout 

 part or all of their length (fig. 69 D), sometimes appearing smooth or nearly 

 so when examined in liquid mounts, but consistently rough or pitted when 

 examined dry. Vesicles globose to subglobose, 25 to 50m in diameter 

 (fig. 69 C), with fairly thin walls which frequently crush in mounts, fertile 

 over almost the entire surface. Sterigmata, in one series in small heads, 

 in two series in large heads; primary sterigmata commonly 7 to 10m by 3 to 

 4m, becoming 20 to 35m long in gigantic heads, secondary sterigmata 7 to 

 10m by 3m- Conidia ranging from more or less pyriform, through sub- 

 globose to globose, conspicuously roughened from prominent tubercles and 

 bars of orange-3 r ellow coloring matter deposited between the loose outer 

 wall and the firm inner wall, commonly ranging from 5.0 to 6.5m in diameter, 

 occasionally up to 8m- Sclerotia produced by many strains, usually purplish 

 or reddish-purple, globose to pjniform with apex white. 



Species characterization is based upon Thorn and Church's culture No. 

 4235.12 (NRRL No. 429) which was submitted to and identified by Kita 

 as A. tamarii (see Thorn and Church, Am. Jour. Bot. 8 : 118. 1921). 



The organism described by Kita proved to be one of a great series repre- 

 sented in our collection. It is common among cultures examined from 

 North and South America, from Japan, China, India, and from Europe. 

 The species has been found to be quite common in soil collected from 

 many areas in the United States. 



The outstanding characters are orange-yellow to brown colonies; coarse, 

 colorless conidiophores, usually roughened but with this character sometimes 

 obscure; large, radiate, loose-textured, conidial heads; sterigmata in one or 

 two series, commonly with single and double sterigmata in the same head; 

 conidia more or less pyriform 5 to 8m in long axis with tubercles or bars of 

 orange-yellow coloring matter between the inner and the outer cell walls. 



In preparing the manuscript for "The Aspergilli" (1926), Thorn and 

 Church introduced into their general key, without name, on page 248 

 under No. 279, a series of forms with morphology and general .appearance 



