A STUDY OF NORTH AMERICAN PARASITIC 

 EXOASCE.^. 



By Mks. F. W. PATTERSON. 



In the winter of 1894 it was suggested to me that the 

 amount of American literature treating of the forms of this- 

 group was quite Hmited and not of recent date, and, the for- 

 eign pubHcations not always being available for students, it 

 might prove useful to prepare a paper upon North American 

 species. 



I am greatlv indebted to Prof. K. Sadebeck of Hamburg, 

 for several most kindly letters containing replies to cpiestions 

 which arose in the systematic determination of some doubtful 

 forms, as also for the gift of his monographs upon the group 

 and a number of herbarium specimens. 



I append to this paper the bibliography of literature con- 

 sulted. In this list is given author's name, title of paper and 

 date of publication. In these citations an attempt has been 

 made to follow the rules of the bibliography committee of 

 American botanists. In the description of each species, under 

 its name, is given the synonom\' chronologicallv arranged, 

 with reference to the bibliographv. Both in these and in the 

 other parts of the text, reference is made to the bibliograph- 

 ical list simply by the author's name and date. 



While the species under consideration have met with many 

 vicissitudes at the hands of various authors as regards their 

 nomenclature, the majorit\- have united in placing them in the 

 order Gyjinioascaccic, containing the simplest ascomycetous 

 forms and constituting the lowest family of the Disroiiiycefes.. 

 According to Saccardo we find this classification : 



