434 



from 



a thick brownish stratum. 

 On dead pods of Lathi 

 no. 1542!). 



rus silvestris, Padua (Mj'coth. Venet. 



— m ., no Diaporthe on Lothyrus seems to be 



known. The halo is due to dark creeping fibres. Cf. Diaporthe 

 7 7iaequalis, Nits. 



893. Phoma occulta, Sacc. ; and 894. 



Sac 



The investigation of the specimens placed under these heads 

 disclosed a " Comedy of Errors " which took a considerable time 

 to unravel. Westendorp published, in Herb. Crypt. Bot. Belg, 

 no. 913!, under the name " Sphaeria conorum, Desna./' a species 



sea 



hut was Diaporthe occulta, (Fckl.) Nits. This error was dis- 

 covered by Nieeel, who pointed out (in He.dwig. 1876, p. 1) that 

 Desmazieres' species was on cones of Pine and was stated by him 

 (Ann, Sci. Nat. 1846, xvi. 7G) to have ascospores measuring 8*3 y. 

 long, while the specimens of Westendorp, Niessl said, had spores 

 12 fx long or more. 



This correction, however, made matters worse. An examina- 

 tion of the Kew example of Desmazieres* own co-type exsiccatum 

 {Sphaeria conorum, Desm. Crypt. Fr. no. ITT- 1 )!, on the rhom- 

 boidal apophysis of cone-scales of Finns silvestris) shows that it 

 possesses well-developed a sci 'containing spores that measure 

 12-14 p, long, and are therefore practically indistinguishable from 

 those of D. occulta. But the same exsiccatum also contains, glued 

 on the paper by Desmazieres, other scales on which were spermo- 

 gones, with spores measuring about 8 x 3 /x. These are what 

 should rightly be called Phomopsis conorum \ evidently 

 Desmazieres gave the length of these pyenidial spores instead 

 of that of the ascospores. 



Saccardo, taking NiessPs word for it, introduced this mistake 

 into the Sylloge (i. 647), and thus misled later mycologists. So 

 when Muller found at Eastbourne a Diaporthe on cone-scales of 

 Pine, having spores 12-14 x 4 p, it was of course concluded by 

 Cooke that this was D. occulta, instead of being as it is, D. 

 conorum; so far. n-oophorous D. occulta has not been noticed in 

 Britain, although the late Dr. J. W. Ellis discovered the 

 Phomopsis-stage at Malvern and Dolgelley. 



The description of D. occulta in Saccardo (p. 647), taken from 

 Nitschke, is, like all that Nitschke wrote, very accurate and com- 

 plete; but as that of />. conorum (ibid.) is incorrect, a description 

 taken from Desmazieres' specimens is given below. It appears 

 that, though the spores are so similar, the fungi differ much in 

 outward appearance, as well as in host. 



DlAPOKTHE COXORUM (De$m.). 



Stromata 3-5 mm. across, angular, distinctly limited, usualh 7 * 

 deep-black and shining outside; within, the matrix is undis- 

 coloured but bordered by a black line. Perithecia globose. 

 about 250 a diam., gregarious, immersed and at first hidden, but 

 at length bursting the *Didermi* and nrntrnrliricr si 



