ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 39 



enced partly by the length of time during which it remains 

 in communication with the conidiophore, but probably 

 more by the climatic conditions, rainy, or damp, weather 

 conducing to a very long growth. Even when conidia are 

 separated from the conidiophores and placed under suitable 

 conditions for germination they will frequently increase in 

 length by apical growth or extension. 



The conidia germinate readily in an abundance of moist- 

 ure, a germ tube being put forth by any or all the cells. 

 In my observations, and they have extended over several 

 species, usually the cell first to produce a germ tube is the 

 basal cell, and the primiary direction of this tube is in a 

 line parallel with that of the conidium but in an opposite 

 direction from the apex. This is not universal, but occurs 

 in such a great majority of cases as to be worthy of note. 

 Since writing the above, in examining conidia of Cercos- 

 pora Peter siii^. & C.) from Rav. Fung. Am., 166 (Helinin- 

 thosporitim Petersii B. & C), kindly loaned me by Professor 

 B. T. Galloway, I found a conidium which had germi- 

 nated, a single germ tube from the basal cell was directed 

 in the w^ay mentioned above. 



I have made several attempts to grow conidia of C. gossy- 

 pina in nutrient agar, both with and without an infusion 

 of cotton leaves. Mycelium is formed abundantly, which 

 forms a dark olive-brown mass, many of the fungus threads 

 cohering into stout compact strands several millimetres in 

 length, but in no case have conidia been produced in such 

 cultures with me. 



Some remarks are necessary here upon one anomalous spe- 

 cies described in the present paper, viz., C. catenospora. 

 This is the first species of Cercospora that has been described 

 with catenulate spores. Confined strictly to the limitations 

 imposed by Saccardo (Vol. IV, pages 381 and 382, of his 

 Sylloge Fungorum) this species would be placed in division 

 C ^^ conidia catenulate ^"^^ and would there constitute a new 



