STUDIES OF SOME PORTO RICAN FUNGI 



Leo R. Tehon 



(with plate xviii) 



The fungi reported and described in this paper represent a 

 miscellaneous group of specimens from the collections of Dr. F. L. 

 Stevens in Porto Rico. They were selected by him and turned 

 over to the author for study. Most of the numbers present points 

 of special interest to the mycologist, as will be seen later in con- 

 nection with the individual species. Type and co-type specimens 

 are deposited in the herbarium of the University of Illinois, and in 

 the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. 



CoccoMYCES De Notaris 

 CoccoMYCES CLUSiAE (Lev.) Sacc. Syll. Fung. 8:147. 1889. 



On dead leaves of Chisia rosea Jacq., Maricao, July 19, 1915. nos. 882a, 

 8765 (figs. 8. 9. 10). 



It is assumed that these specimens belong to this species. No exsiccati 

 have been available for comparison and the descriptions extant are too meager 

 to allow of a positive determination. The fungus, however, clearly belongs to 

 the genus Coccomyces, and its occurrence on Clusia is regarded as being sufficient 

 to warrant calling the specimens C. clusiae. For the convenience of other 

 workers an emended description of the species foUows: 



Spots irregular, large, light-colored, amphigenous, thickly dotted 

 with ascomata. Ascomata amphigenous, but chiefly hypophyllous, 

 black, circular, subepidermal, erumpent, 0.5-2 mm. in diameter, 

 rupturing with the epidermis by 4 or 5 radial splits. Paraphyses 

 filiform, numerous, coalescing above into a brown epithecium. 

 Asci long, narrow, cylindrical, 100-135 X 7 m, 8-spored; ascospores 

 filiform, I M in diameter and nearly as long as the asci, multi- 

 cellular, hyaline. 



Under the microscope the bottoms of empty ascomata present a curious, 

 honeycombed appearance as the result of numerous pits in the hymenial layer 

 (fig. 9). With the hope of finding an explanation for the pitted condition there 

 found, microtome sections were made of the ascomata, some of which contained 



501 



