FAMILY IV. POLYANGIACEAE 



879 



Fruiting bodies: Cysts bright orange-red 

 or red, 25 by 35 microns, elongate, rounded, 

 on a white pointed stalk, rigid and persist- 

 ent on substratum, rods also in stalk. Short- 

 ened rods in cyst 3 to 5 microns. Cysts some- 

 times pear-shaped, caducous. 



Source: Isolated from rabbit dung from 

 Massachusetts. 



Habitat: Found on decaying organic mat- 

 ter in soil and in the dung of various ani- 

 mals. 



Note: A variety of this species was origi- 

 nally described as an independent species 

 by the Krzemieniewskis (loc. cit.). However, 

 further study of this organism by the same 

 workers (Bull. Intern. Acad. Pol. Sci. Let- 

 tres, No. 1-10, Serie B (I), 1946, 46) revealed 

 that the stalks were composite. Since the 

 cysts correspond exactly in shape, size and 

 color to those of Podangiiim gracilipes, the 

 organism is evidently a composite form of 

 P. gracilipes, the stalks being partly fused. 



Illustrations: Thaxter {op. cit., 1897, PI. 

 31, Figs. 20-24), Quehl (Cent. f. Bakt., II 

 Abt., 16, 1906, PI. 1, Fig. 12), Jahn (op. cit., 

 1924, PI. II, Figs. 19-20) and Krzemieniew- 

 ski (Acta Soc. Bot. Poloniae, 4, 1926, PI. V, 

 Fig. 54). 



4. Podangiutn boletus (Jahn, 1924) 

 Krzemieniewska and Krzemieniewski, 1946. 

 (Melittangium boletus Jahn, Beitrage zur 

 bot. Protistologie. I, Die Polyangiden. Geb. 

 Borntraeger, Leipzig, 1924, 78; Krzemie- 



niewska and Krzemieniewski, Bull. Intern. 

 Acad. Pol. Sci. Lettres, No. 1-10, S^rie B 

 (I), 1946, 36.) 



bo.le'tus. L. noun boletus a kind of mush- 

 room. 



Vegetative cells: No description. 



Fruiting bodies: Cyst stalked, mush- 

 room-like, white when immature then yel- 

 lowish flesh-colored, finally yellowish brown 

 to nut-brown; when dried, more reddish 

 brown. Width of cyst about 100 microns, 

 height 40 to 50 microns, length of white stalk 

 about 40 microns. Sometimes the cyst is 

 smaller and spherical (50 to 60 microns in 

 diameter), sometimes there is a fusion of 

 neighboring cysts, occasionally the stalk is 

 abortive. The resting cells are 0.5 by 3.0 to 

 4.0 microns and are arranged within the 

 cyst in a characteristic manner, standing at 

 right angles to the membrane; on germina- 

 tion the membrane is left colorless and can 

 be observed to have a honey-combed struc- 

 ture caused by the impingement of the tips 

 of the oriented resting cells against it. 



Source: From the dung of herbivores from 

 Germany and Denmark. 



Habitat: Found on decaying organic mat- 

 ter in soil and in the dung of various ani- 

 mals. 



Illustrations: Jahn (op. cit., PI. 2, Figs. 

 17-18; Fig. B, page 11; C-F, page 23; 0-Q, 

 page 43; T-U, page 55) and Krzemieniewska 

 and Krzemieniewski (Acta Soc. Bot. Po- 

 loniae, 4, 1926, 1, PI. V, Figs. 55-56). 



Genus IV. Chondroniyccs Berkeley and Curtis, 1874- 



(Berkeley and Curtis, in Berkeley, Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany, London, 1857, 

 313 (illustration but no description); Berkeley (description). Notes on North 

 American Fungi, Grevillea, 3, 1874, 97; see Berkeley and Curtis, 

 in Saccardo, Sylloge Fungorum, 4, 1886, 679.) 



Chon.dro'my.ces or Chon.dro.my'ces. Gr. noun chondrus cartilage, gristle; Gr. noun 

 myces fungus; M.L. masc.n. Chondromyces cartilaginous fungus. 



Cysts compactly grouped at the end of a colored stalk (cj'stophore). C3\stophore simple 

 or branched. 



The type species is Chondromyces crocatus Berkeley and Curtis. 



Key to the species of genus Chondromyces. 



I. Vegetative rods are even cylinders with blunt, rounded ends. 



1. Chondromyces crocatus. 

 II. Vegetative rods of uneven width with tapering ends. 

 A. Cysts not in chains. 



1. Ripe cysts not attached to stalk by pedicel or stipe. 



