MYCOLOOICAL NOTES 209 



mentioned, " ascos diu in globum fasciculatim junctos," adding that 

 he suspected S. ahhreviata Cooke to be a very closely allied species. 

 Against this was to be set Cooke's statement that his ahhreviata had 

 brown spores ("pale brown when mature"), whereas the spores of 

 S. intermixta are always perfectly hyaline. 



Now it happens that round Birmingham there occurs, on small 

 dead shoots of Ruhus^ in considerable quantity, a fungus which accords 

 exactly in external appearance with Cooke's species, and has its asci 

 cohering at the base into a persistent globose fascicle, but its spores 

 always entirely free from colour. Both the species mentioned above 

 were described by their authors as having triseptate spores, Saccardo 

 says of S. intermixta '* spores 3-4-septate." One concludes that 

 Cooke's description of the colour of his spores was merely a slip of 

 the pen, and that the two forms are alike in the asci and spores, but 

 differ in the arrangement of the perithecia. 



This is not all. On further examination of these specimens on 

 Muhus it will be found that, while the younger perithecia contain 

 triseptate spores, showing here and there also a fourth transverse 

 septum, yet some older ones will disclose (mixed with those just 

 mentioned) many larger spores having five or even six septa. There 

 is every reason to believe that the former of these states is Meta- 

 sphceria sepincola (Fckl.) Sacc, on dead stems of Rosa and Riihiis ; 

 whether it is the Sphceria sepincola of Fries is doubtful. The later 

 5-6-septate stage may be considered with equal probability to be the 

 same as MetasphcBria hracJiyttieca (B. & C.) Sacc, on Bosa, the 

 details being exactly as described so far as the short diagnosis goes, 

 and especially the description of the spores as like those of Patellaria 

 (Lecanidion) atrata (see in Grevill. 1876. iv. 146), 



But there is still another development to be considered. Recently 

 I found at the Botanic Gardens, Birmingham, on dead twigs of Rosa 

 damascena, a fungus which externally was very like S. intermixta, 

 having somewhat scattered perithecia, oblong sessile asci collected 

 into a persistent globose fascicle, and all the other points of that 

 species, except that it had larger spores with 5 to 7 septa and one or 

 two of the loculi occasionally divided by a thin but unmistakably 

 longitudinal septum. This can evidently be nothing but a later and 

 more evolved form of S. intermixta. 



Cooke records his >S^. ahhreviata as accompanied by Hendersonia 

 Rosce. Most mycologists would now call this H. Ruhi, altliough an 

 examination of many specimens on both Rosa and Ruhus has furnished 

 me with absolutely no morphological criterion by which they can be 

 distinguished. Exactly in the same way the fungus on Rosa damascena 

 was accompanied by what is usually called Hendersonia Rosce, though 

 in this case the triseptate spores characteristic of this species occasion- 

 ally become 4-septate and, moreover, showed frequently one or even 

 two plain longitudinal septa, so that it became technically a Camaro- 

 sporium, as many Hendersonias do. In fact this increase of septation 

 as the spores of Coelomycetes and Ascomycetes become older and 

 longer is a very common phenomenon, though its occurrence and its 

 fundamental influence on future taxonomy is only just beginning to 

 be recognised. 



