586 FUNGI IMPERFECTi: THE IMPERFECT FUNGI 



ium pushing aside the one last formed and all of these adhering by 

 means of a small amount of slime and forming a head at the apex of the 

 conidiophore. Miss Pinkerton (1936) has shown that these conidia are 

 produced endogenously, each one pushing out the previously formed one 

 into the drop of shme extruded at the tip of the conidiophore. Some 

 species are parasitic on fruiting bodies of Polyporus. The microspores of 

 some species of Fusarium are of this type. Haplotrichum is essentially a 

 Cephalosporium with larger, upright, unbranched conidiophores. Other 

 genera in which conidia are produced on heads but not in chains are 

 Oedocephalum, Rhopalomyces, Sigmoideomyces, in all of which the conidia 

 arise on the swollen tips of the conidiophores. Some of these are probably 

 in reality Mucorales, but until the sexual reproductive stages are dis- 

 covered it is unwise to say that of all. B. 0. Dodge (1937) definitely proved 

 that one species of Oedocephalum is the conidial stage of Peziza pustulata 

 Pers. {Aleuria umbrina Gill.). 



There is a large series of genera in which the conidia are produced in 

 basigenous chains. In many of these the ultimate, spore-bearing element 

 of the conidiophore is more or less flask- or bottle-shaped, producing the 

 spores successively at the neck of the bottle. These ultimate segments are 

 called phialides, or sterigmata. In Aspergillus the perfect stage is known 

 for a number of species, and it is probable that many more where this 

 stage is not now known will be found to possess it. Since it is only rarely 

 or never found in most of the species the genus is to be sought not only in 

 the Order Aspergillales of the Ascomyceteae but also in the Fungi Im- 

 perfecta The conidiophores are upright with a swollen head from which 

 arise at all sides or only on the upper portion numerous phialides or 

 sterigmata. At the tips of these are produced successively the conidia 

 which often form very long chains, the terminal conidium being the oldest. 

 Although classed in the Family Moniliaceae because of similarity of 

 structure, the conidia of the various species may be hyaline, yellow, green, 

 ochre, or even black, and the upper portion of the conidiophore may be 

 dark. In some species when grown with an abundance of nutrients the 

 primary sterigmata bear at their apices groups of secondary sterigmata 

 which produce the conidial chains. Such species have been segregated as 

 the genus Sterigmatocysiis, but since the distinguishing character is 

 largely dependent upon the nutrition and other environmental conditions 

 it does not seem to be of great validity. Closely related to Aspergillus is 

 the genus Penicillium. Here the conidiophore produces two to several 

 branches which grow more or less parallel to it and at about the same 

 level produce at their tips several sterigmata, each bearing a chain of 

 conidia. The branches may arise in a whorl and these themselves bear 

 whorled branches or some of the branches may arise singly at the level 

 below a whorl, thus producing an asymmetrical penicillus or brush of 



