1891.] North American Hyphomycctes. 15 



collection of species, we must accept the studies of Vuille- 

 min and Brefeld as proving a connection both with the Dis- 

 comycetes and the Basidiomycetes. The first named author 1 

 in his cultures of a Peziza, which he calls Aleuria asterigma 

 has clearly established its connection with an Oedocephalum 

 (O. fimctarium Riess) found growing in company with it and 

 also developed directly from germinating ascospores. Bre- 

 feld, - on the other hand, in cultivating the basidiospores of 

 Polyporus annosus, in nutrient solutions, has obtained from 

 them a hyphomycetous fungus which, although it is compared 

 to Aspergillus in the text, and is subject to unusual variations 

 when artificially cultivated, is in all essentials an Oedocepha- 

 lum, and not referable to any other described genus. 



No such proof of the connection of Rhopalomyces with the 

 Zygomycetes has as yet been obtained ; but its Syncephalis- 

 like habit and mode of growth, together with the occurrence 

 of supposed acroconidia, which have been observed by Van 

 Tieghem and are similar to those which accompany the species 

 of Syncephalis and Mortierella, give force to this supposition. 



Costantin, 3 in his excellent synopsis of the simple Muce- 

 dines and elsewhere, 4 first clearly distinguished Rhopalomyces 

 from Oedocephalum, restricting the former genus to a small 

 number of species all characterized by the extreme differen- 

 tiation existing between the fertile and the sterile hyphae ; 

 the almost complete absence of septa, and the large dark- 

 colored conidia. The presence of areolations upon the surface 

 of the fertile head was formerly considered as distinctive of 

 Rhopalomyces, and this definition is adhered to by Saccardo 

 in the Sylfoge, 5 although the same character is, as was pointed 

 out by Harz in his well known paper, 6 distinctly present in 

 so typical a species as Oedocephalum glomcrulosum. It may 

 be mentioned that the last named author recognized neither 

 Oedocephalum nor Rhopalomyces as distinct genera, referring 



Hap lot) 



an error 



1 Sur le Polymorphism des Pezizes : Ass. Franc, p. l'Avan. d. Sci., Congres 



J. Nancy, 1886. 



• Untersuchungen, VIII Heft, Basidiomyceten III, p. 169, Taf. X, XI. 



3 Les Mucedinees Simples. Materiaux p. 1'Histoire d. Champignons. (Paris, 

 1888) Vol. II., p. 37- 



* Bull. d. 1. Soc. Bot. d. France, 1886, p. 492. 



5 Sylloge Fungcrum, Vol. IV., p. 50. 



6 Einige Neue Hyphomyceten Berlin's und Wien's. p 120, Plate I, 

 fig. 1 c. d. 



