[Vor. 5 
128 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
ditions of the region in which this species lives. The para- 
sitic mycelial stage of C. vagum is Rhizoctonia Solani Kühn, 
for full accounts of which and for the literature, reference 
may be made to the papers by Duggar in Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 
2 : 424-458. 1915, and Peltier, Univ. of Ill. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 
189: 283-390. 1916. Corticium vagum is known to the writer 
by fruiting specimens ranging in North America from New 
Brunswick to southern United States and from the Atlantic 
to the Pacifie, and in Europe by specimens from Sweden and 
Russian Poland. Rhizoctonia Solani has been reported from 
regions, additional to the above, of the West Indies, India, 
and Australia. Corticium vagum is remarkable, not only by 
the ability of its vegetative mycelium to live as a saprophyte 
in soil and wood and as a parasite in living plant tissues, but 
it may eome to the surface and fruit on each of these sub- 
strata—very commonly indeed on old wood and bark lying 
on the ground, more rarely on the small stems of potatoes, 
tomatoes, rhubarb, radishes, beans, Amaranthus, Plantago, 
ete., just above the surface of the ground. І have received 
only one specimen in which the fructifications were directly 
on the surface of the ground itself, but the fructification is 
so inconspicuous when on the ground that it may be easily 
overlooked. The wide range as to substratum of C. vagum 
has led to its having been described in Europe as Hypochnus 
Solani when collected on potato stems and as Corticium 
botryosum when on old wood. The synonymy and description 
follow: 
Corticium vagum Berk. & Curtis, Grevillea 1:179. 1873; 
Saee. Syll. Fung. 6 : 616. 1888; Massee, Linn. Soc. Bot. Jour. 
27:148. 1890; Duggar, Mo. Bot. Gard. Ann. 2:445. 1915; 
Peltier, Univ. of Ill. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 189:285. 1915. 
Corticium vagum Berk. & Curtis var. Solani Burt in Rolfs, 
Science N. S. 18: 729. 1903; Colo. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 91: 
1-20. pl. 1-5. 1904.—H ypochnus Solani Prill. & Del. Soc. Mye. 
Fr. Bul. 7:220. text f. 1891; басс. Syll. Fung. 11: 130. 
1895.—Corticium Solani Prill. & Del. in Bourd. & Galz. Soc. 
Mye. Fr. Bul. 27:248. 1911. — Corticium botryosum Bresa- 
