Presidential Address. T. Petch. 19 
1861*. They did not find the universal veil, and stated that 
the apparent veil was merely a covering of mycelium at the 
base of the stroma. It would seem that they were misled by 
Desmaziéres’ use of the term volva, and his comparison with 
a phalloid, and expected to find a structure resembling a phalloid 
volva at the base of the clava. It is difficult to make out the 
structure of Microcera from European examples. 
Desmaziéres’ fungus, Microcera coccophila, was a conidial 
form. To it the Tulasnes attached a perithecial stage, which 
was collected in company with a similar conidial stage at 
Florence. The perithecial stage was a Nectrvia, and consequently 
the Tulasnes placed the fungus in their genus Sphaerostilbe, 
under the name Sphaerostilbe coccophila. It is to be noted that 
the type locality for the perithecial stage is Florence, Italy, 
and that of the conidial stage, Caen, France. 
The next record of a Nectria on a scale insect was made by 
Berkeley and Broome in the Fungi of Ceylon (1873)+, in which 
they described Nectria aurantiicola, with the note, “apparently 
growing from some coccus.’’ Berkeley and Broome described 
the Fusarioid conidia and figured the effete Stilboid stage 
dividing into teeth at the apex; consequently, one is rather at 
a loss to understand why they did not place their species in 
Sphaerostilbe. 
Two years latert, Berkeley and Curtis described Nectria 
aglaothele from North America, with a note that it grew on the 
remains of a coccus. This again is Sphaerostilbe. 
In 1901, Zimmermann described Nectria coccidophthora§, on 
scale insects in Java. This differs from Nectria aurantiicola, 
principally in its larger ascospores, and must be classed with 
the latter species in Sphaerostilbe. 
So far the record is quite straightforward. Four species re- 
ferable to Sphaerostilbe have been described as occurring on 
scale insects. But naturally, the idea that fungi might be 
parasitic on scale insects, and not on the plant on which they 
were found, was not always in mind, and hence it is only to be 
expected that, when the presence of the scale insect was not 
immediately obvious, such fungi would be described without 
reference to their real host. An examination of the species of 
Nectria and Sphaerostilbe in the herbaria at Kew and the 
British Museum has confirmed that supposition. 
Prior to Sphaerostilbe coccophila, the Tulasnes had described 
a species with a similar conidial stage as Sphaerostilbe fammea. 
The history of the latter species begins in England, with speci- 
* Selecta Fungorum Carpologia, I, p. 130; III, p. 105. 
¢ Journ. Linn. Soc. xiv ee Dp: EL7: 
t Grevillea, tv (1875), p. 4 
§ Centralb. f. Bakt., Abt, = vil (1901), p. 873. 
