

440 



Keissler, but not like the description of Phoma anaxaca, Speg. 

 (Syll. iii. 121) to which he assigns it, but of which, it is true, 

 neither Keissler nor I have seen a specimen. Saccardo seems to 

 be in error in regarding the latter as the spermogone of a 

 LHaporthe. The fungus is also somewhat similar to specimens of 

 Placosphaeria Balanseana, Sacc. & Roum. (Syll. x. 237), in ex- 

 ternal appearance. But since each stroma contains only one 

 spore-bearing cavity, it must belong rather to the Leptostroma- 

 ceae : Placosphaeria has numerous dothideoid cavities in each 

 stroma, though I believe that it is more akin to the Leptostroma- 

 ceae, than to the Sphaerioideae where Saccardo places it. 



In view, however, of the confusion in which the Leptostroma- 

 ceae now stand, with the generic limits perfectly undefined, it is 

 useless to assign the present species to a genus. The whole 

 group requires thorough re-examination, a long and arduous task. 

 Thus under Leptostroma herbaruw , Fr., we find placed by various- 

 authors species presenting at least three or four types of 

 nvenidiuni, nor can these be disentangled by any other means 

 than by examining their vertical sections. 



It is known that some Lepto*tromaceae arise between the 

 cuticle and the epidermal cells, others arise within the epider- 

 mal cells, which they ultimately destroy. The process by which 

 the stroma arose in the present species could be clearly followed. 

 The purplish-brown hypha starts in a single epidermal cell, 

 branches and fills that cell with pseudo-parenchyma, then grows 

 through the pits into the neighbouring cells, where it again 

 branches and continues the process. Finally there is produced 

 a cluster of epidermal cells of which the lateral walls are com- 

 pletely destroyed, while the mycelium also penetrates deeply into 

 the mesophyli. Then the cuticle is burst, and round the free 

 margin the hyphae grow outwards in a somewhat radiating 

 fashion. Meanwhile a cavity arises in the stromatic mass, round 

 the inside of which erect hyphae (conidiophores) produce the 

 | pores, which finally escape through a hole formed at the apex 

 of the mass. The structure exactly resembles that of Diedicke's 

 | A, as described for Leptostroma Equizeti, Jaap, and figured in 



his article Die Leptostromaceen (Annal. Mycol. 1913, xi. 177, 



f. 3). The name of this fungus should then be Leptostroma 

 hysteriiforme, but it opens by a pore, not a slit, and therefore 

 does not belong to Leptostroma in Saccardo' 8 sense; but to 



Leptothyrium m 



SPECIES TO BE TRANSFERRED TO GLOEOSPORIUM. 



. Phoma lagenicola, Sacc. 



Gloeosporium Lagenarjae, Grove. 



Phoma Lagenariae, Thiim. in Contr. Mvc. Flo*. Lusit. ser. 

 iii. no. 567 (1880), non Sacc. 



There are in the Herbarium en Lagenaria fruits a number of 

 specimens on which the name " Phoma Lagenariae, Cooke " has 

 been written. These on examination yield numerous spores, 

 which are evidently those of a Gloeoannr'nim • fhprp*is no trace 



