94 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



Throughout the tropics there occurs a fungus, parasitic on 

 hornets, which manifests itself as long black hairs projecting in 

 all directions from the body of the insect. This has usually been 

 regarded as an Isaria, but solely from the fact that it grew on 

 an insect, no one having observed any form of fructification on 

 it. Cooke named it Isaria Saussurei. Speare has found that this 

 fungus in Hawaii, California, and the West Indies is a Hirsu- 

 tella, and has adopted the name Hirsutella Saussurei for it. The 

 corresponding Ceylon form is also a Hirsutella, and apparently 

 the same species. It might be considered doubtful whether this 

 species is identical with Isaria Saussurei, since the clavae of the 

 latter were said to be orange, but it would "seem most probable 

 that the colour was wrongly described. 



As noted by Speare, no ascigerous stage has hitherto been 

 recorded for any species of Hirsutella, though he considers that 

 these forms are probably the imperfect stages of Cordyceps or 

 an allied type. During a recent examination of a collection of 

 Ceylon species of Cordyceps, it was found that Cordyceps 

 unilateralis (Tul.) Sacc. has a Hirsutella conidial stage, the apex 

 of the clava being at first conidial. Further, Hirsutella arachno- 

 phila has been found in association with a Torrubiella, and 

 though the two have not been found together on the same stroma 

 there is little doubt that the Hirsutella and the Torrubiella are 

 stages of the same fungus. Speare's surmise is consequently 

 correct. 



SPORE FORMATION IN RHACODIUM 

 CELLARE PERS. 



By J. H. V. Charles. 



Rhacodium cellar e Pers., the fungus which covers bottles in 

 wine cellars as with cobwebs, has been classified in standard 

 works on fungi, e.g. Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen Flora, Saccardo's 

 SyUoge Fungorum, and Engler and Prantl's Pflanzenfamilien, as 

 one of the "Mycelia sterilia." 



The volume of Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen Flora containing 

 the description of this fungus was published in 19 lo, and it is 

 somewhat remarkable that no mention is made therein of a 

 long paper on Rhacodium cellare by Gueguen which appeared 

 in the Bulletin de la Societe Mycologique de France for 1906*. 

 Gueguen clearly described a process of spore formation in this 



* Attention was directed to this paper by Mr J. Ramsbottom. 



