Fungi found on Codium mucronatum 



Sanford M. Zeller 

 Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis 



There are comparatively few fungi reported from saline habitats. 

 Those that are found under such conditions are microscopic species and, 

 altho they are mostly parasitic on marine algae, some few saprophytic 

 forms have been described in very recent literature. Of the total number 

 of marine fungi that have been reported there are a very few species 

 belonging to the Phycomycetes, about 24 to the Pyrenomycetes and 14 to 

 the Fungi Imperfecti. In case of the marine Phycomycetes almost, 

 if not all, belong to the Chytridiaceae. These are such minute structures 

 that they are often not noticeable, and the real nature of the body de- 

 scribed as a fungus is open to question. Since the life history of some of 

 these are so incompletely known it is not surprising that we know so 

 little of the salt-water species. Nevertheless, as early as 1865 Cohn^ 

 described three marine species of Chytridineae and pointed out" the 

 difficulty in working with such minute structures and the ease with which 

 they had often been mistaken for the fruit bodies in certain marine algae. 

 Magnus^ soon added to these Chytridium tumefaciens and C. sphacellarum 

 and again reported C. Plumulae Cohn. Kibbe*, who reports Chytridium 

 alarium Kibbe on Alaria fistulosa, has cited the literature on the marine 

 Phycomycetes and Pyrenomycetes so adequately that we will not re- 

 peat it here. 



As to the Fungi Imperfecti occurring in saline habitats, Sutherland'* 

 has discussed the previous literature and described eight new species of 

 Imperfecti representing widely different subdivisions which leads one to 

 the belief that there might be a fairly extensive fungous flora in salt water. 



During the summer of 1914 while studying the morphology of Codium 

 mucronatum several specimens of a Chytridium were observed on the 

 utricles. A search was made for the zoospores but they were not found 



' Cohn, F. Chytridii species novae marinae. Hedwigia, Vol. 4, pp. 169-170. 1865. 



' Cohn, F. Beitrage zur Physiologie der Phycochromaceen und Florideen. Archiv. f. Mikrosb. 

 Anat., Vol. 3, pp. 1-60, pi. 1-2. 



5 Magnns, P. Chytridium. Sitzungs-Ber. d. Ges. nat. Freun z. Berlin. Vol. for 1872, pp. 

 87-90. 1872. 



* Kibbe, A. L. Chytridium alarium on Alaria fistulosa. Puget Sound Marine Sta. Pub., Vol. 

 1, pp. 221-226, pi. 39-40. 1916. 



' Sutherland, G. K. Marine fungi imperfecti. New Phytologlst, Vol. 15, pp. 35-48. Text figs. 

 1-5. 1916. 



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