274 



THE LOWER FUNGI— PHYCOMYCETES 



thread-like haustoria as in Piptocephalis; fertile hyphae erect, 

 straight or apically uncinate, provided at the base with prom- 

 inent rhizoids, apically dilated to form a clavate to globose 

 enlargement, which in some species bears rod-like sporangia 

 directly on sterigmata, but in other forms more or less elongate 

 branches which are provided at the tips with sterigmata bearing 

 the sporangia; number of spores in a sporangium more or less 



Fig. 101.- — (a-d) Syncephalis wynneae Thaxter. (e, /) Synccphalis reflcxa 

 V. Tieghem. (y, h, m, n) Syncephalastrum racemosum Cohn. a. Fertile hypha 

 with spur-like rhizoids at base and spores still in situ at apex, (h) Spores freed 

 from sporangia adhering in a viscous spherical mass, (c) Enlarged apex of 

 fertile hypha from which radiate branches terminated by clusters of tubular 

 sporangia, (d) One such sporangium with its pair of spores nearly mature. 

 (e, /) Sporangia before and after spore formation, (g) Normal sporangium 

 containing single row of mature spores, (h) Sporangium containing one lateral 

 spore, (w) Spores escaping through base of a detached sporangium, (n) 

 Crushed sporangium. {After Thaxter 1897.) 



definite in a given species, in some species only two or three; 

 spores at maturity assuming the aspect of a chain of conidia; 

 under moist conditions all the spores on a head held together as 

 a spherical mass in a droplet of water; zygospores formed some- 

 what as in Piptocephalis, conjugating branches more or less coiled 

 about each other (Fig. 101), 



The genus contains about twenty-five species. The most 

 extensive taxonomic treatments are those of van Tieghem (1875: 

 114-137) and Fischer (1892: 295). An interesting discussion 

 of the genus is given by Thaxter (1897: 1). 



