24 



The North American Cup- Fungi 



species preferred wood which had been rotted rather than 

 burned. 



While working at The New York Botanical Garden as a 

 student in 1906, the attention of the writer was called to a pink 

 fungus ovenunning the soil in the greenhouse which had been 

 sterilized with steam. On examination, the fungus proved to be 

 Pyronema. This exploded the previous assumption that the 



Fig. 14. Culture of Pyronema on heated soil, suitable for class study, showing 

 all stages from the clustered sex organs to mature apothecia. 



fungus occurred on burnt places because of the ashes, for there 

 were no ashes in the steam-sterilized soil. As a result of these 

 observations experiments were undertaken which finally proved 

 that Pyronema could be grown on any rich soil which had been 

 heated to a high temperature either by dry heat or steam and 

 later cooled, wet, and inoculated with the spores of the fungus. 



