80 Transactions British Mycological Society. 
Fructifications on both surfaces of the leaf, arranged in series, 
1-2 mm. long, grey or yellowish-grey, continuously covered by 
the epidermis, opening by a long slit. Asci club-shaped, very 
shortly stalked or sessile, 120-170 x 15-20. Spores 8, club- 
shaped, non-septate, guttulate, thickest at the rounded obtuse 
upper end and gradually diminishing to the acute lower end, 
very variable in size often curved, 42-I00 x 3-5 w surrounded 
by a layer of mucilage 3-5 » in thickness. Paraphyses filiform, 
straight or slightly hooked. The fructifications, which may be 
occasionally more than 2 mm. long, are not at all obvious on 
the partially dried leaf. They are usually surrounded by an 
irregular area of brownish- or yellowish-grey dead tissue and 
the abundance of these areas gives the whole shoot a greyish 
tinge. The mycelium is abundant in the parenchyma just below 
the fructifications, but does not extend to the vascular strand 
and is generally confined to the side of the leaf bearing the 
fructifications; the hyphae are 3-5 in diam., colourless and 
provided with transverse dividing walls. The covering layer of 
the fructifications consists of pseudoparenchyma and is 4-6 cells 
in thickness; the uppermost layer immediately underneath the 
persistent epidermis is opaque and dark-coloured, the remaining 
cells having little colouring matter; the whole has a distinct 
violet tinge. Brunchorst gives no measurement of asci or spores 
in his description (Nogle norske skovsygdomme. Bergens 
Museums Aarbog, 1892), but his figure shows that the spores 
are about 4 the length of the ascus and the length of the spore 
is about ten times its breadth at the thickest part. The spores 
in the Scottish specimens are usually longer than this but some 
agree in shape with Brunchorst’s figure. Their size is very 
variable; generally in each ascus 3-4 spores are about # of the 
length, 2-3 about 4 the length and the remainder only about 
+ of the length of the ascus; they are more or less twisted round 
each other in the ascus. The spores usually escape by an almost 
transverse rupture towards the lower end of the ascus but 
sometimes by an apical opening. 
Saccardo (Sylloge Fungorum, vol. x1, p. 389) questions whether 
the species ought not to be placed in the genus Hypodermella 
but the presence of only four spores in the ascus in the latter 
as well as the considerable resemblance between Hypoderma 
pinicola and H. nervisequum seems to negative this. 
Lind (Danish Fungi, Copenhagen, 1913) considers that Hypo- 
derma pinicola Brunch. is synonymous with Hypodermella 
sulcigena Link. By the courtesy of Prof. Ferdinandsen of 
Copenhagen it has been possible to examine Danish specimens 
of the latter species but these unfortunately do not bear asci- 
gerous fructifications. The needles of Pinus sylvestris attacked 
