55 



held together in mucilage, loosely arranged in the centre and more 

 compact towards the periphery. The general structure was utterly 

 unlike that of an ordinarv fungus^ and from an alga the plant 

 differed in the fact that the filaments were apparently devoid of 

 colouring matter, whikt from a lichen they were equally distinct 

 through the absence of gonidia — the algal cells characteristic of 

 that group. As no bodies which could be definitely referred to 

 spores were present, the organism was set aside until fertile speci- 

 mens should be obtained, and a request was forwarded to Dr. Watts 

 asking for further material and for information on the colour of 

 the cell-contents when fresh. 



Additional supplies were subsequently received from Mr. J. 

 Jones, Curator of the Botanic Station, Dominica, and through the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, and these gave the necessary clue 

 for identification. One of these samples provided the conidia-like 

 spores, and the other abundance of asci and ascospores. The pre- 

 sence of asci proved that the plant was not an alga, and, the absence 

 of gonidia being confirmed, its place had to be sought amongst the 

 fungi. Here it was ultimately traced to the genus Atichia^ which, 

 on account of its having been originally described as a lichen, had 

 been omitted from Saccardo's Sylloge Fungovum. For half a 

 century the genus had contained but a single minute species A, 

 glomerulosaf but during recent years several others had been 

 addedj an account of which is given below. 



HiSTOiiY or THE Ge:xus. 



The genus Atichia was founded by Elotow in 1850 for the 

 reception of ColleTna glomerulosum, Ach,, a gelatinous plant 

 which occurs as wart-like masses 1-2 mm. in diameter on leaves 

 of conifers in Southern Europe. Flotow noted its peculiar struc- 

 ture and the entire absence of green colour in the tissues, but states 

 he had no hesitation in leaving it in the lichen family Collemaceae. 

 He named it A. Mosigii, not A. glomerulosa as has been assumed 

 by subsequent writers. In 1870 (Brit. Mus. copy) Millardet, in a 

 memoir on the Collemaceae, gave a full account of the structure 

 of this plant, illustrated with beautiful figures. He employs here 



. Mosigii though he had previoii 



Hyphodicty 



M 



described reproductive bodies which he termed conidia^ From 

 that date till 1900 nothing appears to have been added to our 

 knowledge of the genus though several poorly described fungi 

 which had been referred to various groups are now kno^vn to repre- 

 sent species of Atichia. Saccardo omitted the genus altogether 



rom 



Hehm 



to the Bulgariaceae (iii., p. 500). The first writer who rejected 

 the plant as a lichen was Millardet, and Stein was the author who 

 proposed the combination Atichia glomeritlosa (Cohn, Crypto- 

 gamen Flora von Schliessen, ii. p. 356, 1879^. 



Ascospores were first found in a species discovered in Java, 

 material being collected by Count Solms-Laubach, and shortly 

 after by Raciborski. A note on Solms' specimens was given by 

 R. Wagner ('00), who remarks that the plant is an Ascomycete pos- 



