72 



It may be well to glance at what lias, been written on the sub- 

 ject in Italy. The earliest reference known to me is that of Ru- 

 dolphi in Linnaea, 18l'l), where the Endotlna is said to grow on 

 Quercus Ilex, Q. jmbens and Castanea vesca. Later accounts 

 were given by Cesati and De Notaris in 18G3 in their Schema and 

 the Sx>haeriacei Italica, A\liere there is a good description and a 

 rather crude figure apparently drawn from somewhat immature 

 sijecimens, for the spores are represented as one celled, although 

 in the description they are said to be sometimes obscurely two- 

 parted. The fungus is said to be common on dried brandies and 

 denuded roots of oaks and cliestnuts in JS'orLliern Italy and to 

 occur also on elms. 



Italian specimens Avere distributed in Rabenhorst's Herbarium 

 Mycologicum, Thuemenis, Mycotheca Universalis and Saccardo 

 M3^cot]ieca Veneta; but in the coj^ies which I have examined the 

 si^ecimens had spermogonia but no asci. The most recent notice 

 of the fungus in Italy is that of Traverso in Flora Italica Cryp- 

 togama, in 1906, avIio uses the name Endotliia (jjjroaa. It is said 

 to grow on Aesculus, Alnus, Carpinus, Castanea, Corylus, Fagus, 

 Juglans, and Quercus, and to occur not only in Europe and 

 North America but even in Ceylon and New Zealand. 



We have early notices of the fungus in France. In 1830 Fries 

 stated in Linnaea that he had received it from that country and 

 Tulasne in his Carpologia, Vol. II, 1863, gave a long notice of 

 the fungus, which he saj^s grows on Carpinus, with critical notes 

 on the synonymy of the species. In 1870 Fuckel recorded its 

 appearance as rare on Alnus at Oestrich in Nassau, and Winter, 

 in 1886, in Rabenhorst's Crytogamen Flora, stated that the En- 

 dotliia grew on different deciduous trees in Germany. The 

 records of the fungus in France and Gerinany are less satisfac- 

 tory than its record in Italy, and the specimens distributed from 

 the former countries in exsiccati are few and poor. 



From this rather long account of tlie history of the chestnut 

 fungus in Europe, we may draw the folloAving conclusions: Our 

 chestnut tree fungus is widely spread in Europe and is common 

 in Northern Italy, where it was first noticed as long ago as 1829. 

 It is of interest to notice that Avriters are very generally agreed 

 that it grows on bark, dried branches, and dead roots, ratlier 

 than on living In-anrhes, and the hosts on wliich it is said to grow 



