Pimina parasitica Grove. A. Lorrain Smith. 295 



PIMINA PARASITICA GROVE. 



By A . Lurrain Smith, F.L.S. 



This peculiar fungus which was discovered by Greenwood Pirn 

 growing on the hyphae of Botrytis sp. was described by Grove 

 as gen. and nov. sp. in Journ. Bot. xxvi. p. 206, 1888. Pirn 

 himself published a photographic plate of the fungus with a 

 description in the second number of the Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, 

 Vol. I. p. 65, i8g8. A microscopic preparation was placed in 

 the herbarium of the British Museum. 



In more recent years a fungus occurring among moulds on the 

 cork of a bottle of preserved fruits has been described at length 

 by P. Vuillemin as Urophiala gen. and nov. sp. (Bull. Soc. Sci. 

 Nancy, Ser. 3, xi. p. 158 (pis. 4-5), 1910). The description and 

 figures leave absolutely no doubt that he was dealing with the 

 same genus if not the same species. 



The genus is of particular interest as Vuillemin has given it 

 an important place in his scheme of classification of the Hyphales 

 or Hyphomycetes. In this scheme, he insists on the systematic 

 importance of the insertion of the spore or conidium. He dis- 

 tinguishes four different types of insertion: the conidia may 

 be borne (i) directly on the hyphae; (2) at the top of a conidio- 

 phore; (3) on a specialised cell or sterigma which he terms a 

 phiahde to distinguish it from the sterigma of the Basidiomy- 

 cetes, or (4) on a phialide which rises from a specialised cell or 

 prophialide. These he groups as four orders: 



I. Sporotricheae : spores borne directly on the hyphae, ex. 

 Sporotrichum. 



II. Sporophoreae : spores borne directly on a sporophore, ex. 

 Acremonium. 



III. Phialideae : spores borne on a sterigma or phialide, ex. 

 Spicaria. 



IV. Prophialideae : phialide rising from a prophialide, ex. 

 Urophiala [Pimina) . 



In the last order Vuillemin places three families each con- 

 taining one genus, I. Urophialaceae, II. Coemansiaceae, III. 

 Coronellaceae. 



