53 



capsule pericarp, eacb measuring about 1 by lA centimeters. Tlie inner 

 membrane is wiiite, longitudinally wrinkled, and sound, or at least bears 

 no Spb;i'riaceous bodies, Fusarium spores, or fungoustlireads. Jnplaces 

 it bears tiny rusty specks, which are dead cells of the membrane con- 

 taining some amorphous brown substance. The dark brown outer 

 membrane is raised into numerous small papilla', quite regularly 

 arranged. These papilhe are barely visible to the naked eye and under 

 a lens magnifying onlj^ two to three times might readily be mistaken 

 for buried perithecia. These are undoubtedly what de Schweinitz saw 

 and named Splucria gossypii, but they do not contain any perithecia. 

 Under a lens magnifying ten diameters they look more doubtful and 

 when examined under the compound microscope (dry and crushed in 

 water) they are observed clearly to be not of fungous origin, at least 

 there are no Nectriaceous or Splncriaceous bodies either on the sur- 

 face or in the depths, and no Fusarium spores or hyphie. Such papilla} 

 are very common on the surface of cotton bolls when shriveling, as 

 every one knows who has seen much of the plant, and very often at 

 at least, they are not of fungous origin. 



The presence of long necks which come to the surface and pour out 

 gelatin and the statement by de Schweinitz that "scarcely a capsule of 

 cotton is to be seen without this Sphicria" make it reasonably certain 

 that de Schweinitz did not found his description on the infrequent little 

 red perithecia which I have discov^ered. Finally, an examination of 

 some of the scanty material of Sxfha'ria gossyjni which has been j^reserved 

 in herbaria seems to indicate that the species was founded on the iiapil- 

 late appearance of the dry cotton capsule and on the fact that the sur- 

 face of cotton capsules frequently exhibits a purple stain and a shining 

 appearance. All the rest of the descriiition (much more of it than I 

 at first supposed) is pure inference — i. e., an easy method of accounting 

 for the i^apillte and the purplish glaze. 



