THE DISCOMYCETES OF EASTERN IOWA. 275 



elliptical, hyaline, smooth or sometimes rough. In one or two 

 rows in the ascus. Plants generally occur on clung. 



Several species have been collected or grown in the labora- 

 tory. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



a — Plants minute, paraphyses with globose apices, 



yellow ....... A. microsporus 



a — Plants larger, paraphyses not globose. 



b — Receptacle red, paraphyses clavate, on sacking A. testaceus. 



b — Receptacle blackish, paraphyses filiform, on 



dung . . . . . . . A. cinereus. 



Ascophanus MICROSPORUS (/?. and Br.) Phill. 

 Plate XIII, fig. n. 



1871 Ascobolus microsporus Cooke, Handbk. of Brit. Fung. II, p. 730. 



1887 Ascophanus microsporus Phillips, Brit. Disc, p. 307. 



1889 Ascophanus microsporus Saccardo, Sylloge Fung., VIII, p. 528. 



Very minute, sessile, light yellowish red, sometimes almost 

 white, depressed, about .5 to 1 mm. in diameter; asci broadly 

 clavate, often furnished at the base with a little narrow, ob- 

 lique stem, 85 to 90 by 12 microns; sporidia 8, elliptical, hya- 

 line, 7 to 8 by 4 microns; paraphyses slender septate, with 

 large, globose apices, filled with a greenish yellow endochrome. 



Habitat — On old cow dung in a culture in the laboratory. 



Numerous plants of this species were found growing, either 

 gregarious or scattered, on old cow dung which was kept moist 

 under glass in the laboratory for several weeks. The plants 

 are very small in size and of a transparent reddish brown 

 color. They are easily distinguished on account of the small 

 size of the plants, their minute spores, which are generally 

 arranged in two rows in the ascus and the paraphyses with 

 their large globose apices, the apices alone being filled with 

 yellow coloring matter, making them very conspicuous. Phil- 

 lips in his "British Discomycetes " (page 307) describes the 

 spores as being at length violet. In no case were the spores 

 seen to be violet in the specimens studied in this laboratory, 

 and the plants were kept growing for more than four weeks, 



