112 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



As illustrative of the scantiness of the herbarium material of 

 Torruhiella, it may be noted that up to the end of 1920, neither 

 the Kew nor the British Museum herbarium contained a speci- 

 men under that name, nor, apparently, under any other genus, 

 notwithstanding the richness of both herbaria in tropical 

 fungi. 



I have not seen the type specimen of the genus Torruhiella, 

 T. aranicida Boud. The other species which have been placed 

 in Boudier's genus do not appear to agree with the original 

 generic description on several points, though it is scarcely to 

 be doubted that they are co-generic. Only a re-examination of 

 the type can decide whether these discrepancies are real or not. 



Boudier described his species as having paraphyses, and 

 included the presence of paraphyses as a generic character. 

 Patouillard described T. tomentosa Pat. and T. rubra Pat. and 

 Lagh. as not having paraphyses, and did not refer to paraphyses 

 in T. ochracea Pat. Zimmermann did not mention paraphyses 

 in the description of T. luteorostrata, nor did Hennings in the 

 description of T. rostrata. von Keissler stated that T. brunnea 

 had few, filiform paraphyses, sparsely guttulate, with a slightly 

 capitate apex, von Hohnel described T. sericicola as having 

 very delicate evanescent paraphyses, shorter than the asci, 

 and added that paraphyses were present, but were not typically 

 developed. Moller did not mention paraphyses in his descrip- 

 tions of Cordyceps gonylepticida , C. rhynchoticola, and C. cristata, 

 and Tranzschel stated that he did not observe paraphyses in 

 Helminthasciis arachnophthorus. 



I have not been able to identify paraphyses in any of the 

 species which are parasitic on scale insects. The paraphyses 

 described by von Keissler for T. brunnea would appear to be 

 immature asci. But in Torruhiella flava, which is parasitic on 

 spiders, there are thin-walled paraphyses, as long as the asci, 

 lax, collapsing, with protoplasmic contents, expanding to a 

 breadth of 3 /a at the apex. They resemble immature asci, but 

 they do not possess a thickened cap. 



The perithecium of Torruhiella, in some species, contains a 

 comparatively large amount of an amorphous jelly-like sub- 

 stance, in which are embedded minute fusoid granules and 

 sometimes more or less spherical cells. This substance at first 

 sight might be regarded as the product of diffluent paraphyses. 

 If, however, the perithecium is subjected to pressure under a 

 cover glass, the mass of asci, if ripe enough, will be extruded 

 through the base; and it is then found that the amorphous 

 substance forms a continuous layer round the asci, and prevents 

 them from spreading out separately, or in the usual fan-shaped 

 manner, on the slide. It does not occur between the asci. At 



