NEW Oil NOTEWORTHY FUNGI 293 



directl}' on the stroma ; this at length resolves itself into a mucilage 

 in which the spores remain embedded. 



It seems likely that several species now classed with Plioma, snch 

 as P. enteroleuca Saec, will turn out on investigation to l)el()ng to 

 this genus. The stroma here is not external to the pycnidium, as 

 misconceived by Stevens. 



271. ScLEROPHOMA PTTiiYA Died. Pilz. Brand, ix. 2S0 (? non 

 y. Hohn. Fragm. Mykol. 1909, no. 402). 



Phoma pithi/a Sacc. Mich. i. 120 ; Syll. iii. 73. 



Plionia GemhroB Karst. Fragm. xxii. p. 2. 



\ Phomopsis pitliya Lind, Dan. Fung. 1913, p. 421 = P//o;«rt ahie- 

 Una Ilartig (ISHH) = Pnsicoccum ahietiiium Frill. & Delacr. 



Sporonema strohiliniim var. rconulonim Vesterg. Oefv. K. Vet. 

 Ak. Forh. 1897, p. 45. Sacc. Syll. xiv. lOUO. 



Pycnidia scattered or irregularly gregarious, covered by the bark, 

 then semi-erumpent, globose, not papillate but rounded above and 

 mouthless, 300-500 /a diam., at length nearly superficial ; contents 

 whitish ; texture thick, rather solid, parenchymatous, smoky-brown. 

 Spores at first obovoid, 6-7 x 2-2| ^, then obovate-fusoid, 7-9 x 2^-3 jx, 

 at length distinctly fusoid, acute at one or both ends, 9-12 x 3-4 jx 

 (or even 5 ^^, somethnes guttulate, generally straight but sometimes 

 inequilateral, seated directly on a dense mass of nearly colourless cells 

 that ultimately become reduced to a mucus, which is often faintly 

 tinged with brown and in which the spores are embedded ; no definite 

 sporophores. (Tab. 550. f. 3.) 



On small dead branches of Plmis sih^estris. King's Lyim ( Plow- 

 right) ; Cheshire (KUis). On the same, Edgbaston Botanic Gardens, 

 Hiriningliam. Mar.-Apr. Plowriglit's specimens were sent to me so 

 long ago as 1881, mixed with Caiianyiain Abietis Kehm, but remained 

 uimoticed till this year. 



Said to be the pycnidial stage of Diaporthe pithija Sacc, this 

 species has been placed in Phoniopsis, to which our specimens certainly 

 cannot belong on account of the entire absence of the remarkable per- 

 sistent sporophores which are characteristic of that genus. For the 

 spores are seated on a mass of cells of a subsclerotioid nature, in this 

 respect resembling Plenodomus, but in the latter the selerotioid cells 

 do not resolve themselves into mucus, as they do in t^clerophoma. 



Photna Cemhrae Karst. is undoubtedly the young state of the 

 iidrrop}ioma, before the spores assume the fu.soid form, and Phoma 

 pithi/a Sacc. is the more advanced state. Phomopsis pithyn Lind, 

 with its synonyms, cannot be the same fungus, as asserted by Lind ; 

 the species classed under those names has long sporophores and is a 

 true parasite, doing great harm to numerous Conifers (^Abies, Juni- 

 pcrus, Picea, P/'nus, Psei/dotsifffa), but the Srlero2)homa, so far as at 

 jjresent known, appears to l)e only sapro])hytic. Phomopsis pithya 

 Lind should be called Phomopsis abietiiut (Ilartig). 



Sporonrtna strobilinum Desm. has very similar spores (Tab. 550. 

 f. 8), V)ut they are borne on long subulate or filiform often branched 

 sporophores, and the upper part of the pycnidium at last falls away, 

 leaving a naked disc. Its variety ramulorinn Vesterg., however, is 



