keley published this as "Xylaria Schweinitzii, Berkeley and Curtis, ' 

 thus advertising the three middlemen, none of whom had much to do 

 with it excepting to pass it along. The original collector was left 



out in the cold in this advertising 

 scheme, and the clerical trinity gath- 

 ered all the glory. 



Xylaria Schweinitzii is the same 

 type of plant as Xylaria polymorpha. 

 It has the same stroma, and similar 

 perithecia. When fully developed, 

 it has a subglobose head, and a 

 slender stipe. The spores, 10 x 28, 

 average broader, but it belongs close 

 to polymorpha. 



Fig. 908. 



NOTE We have noted this statement some- 

 where in print since our Letter No. 50 was pub- 

 lished. At that time we reached the same conclu- 

 sions, but only by inference, which, however, proved 

 to be correct. 





XYLARIA VARIABILIS, FROM J. GOSSWEILER, AFRICA 

 OCCIDENTALS (Fig. 909). We determine this purely on the 

 principle of the doctrine of probabilities. It came 

 from the "type locality." While it has not much 

 resemblance to the picture that Currey gave, it is 

 about as near as most pictures that are supposed to 

 represent Xylarias, nearer than many of them. In 

 addition, it agrees with a remark of Currey 's, "The 

 inner tissue collapses in drying (as is the case with 

 many Xylarias), leaving the bark (so to speak) in 

 the form of a brittle, detached integument." This 

 is shown in our photograph (but not in Currey's 

 picture), and it is a better character than Mr. Currey 

 thought. We have photographs of most of the his- 

 torical specimens in the museums, excepting the rela- 

 tively few that are in the British Museum. The 

 facilities for photographing there were not as con- 

 venient for me as in other museums. Mr. Gossweiler's 

 specimens also agree with the "type" in another 

 feature they are immature. 



The perithecia are arranged in lines, on the order 

 of those of the well-known Xylaria grammica of the 

 American tropics, and the two species will go in the 

 same group, if indeed they are not finally referred to 

 the same species. 



The determination of species by deduction is not 

 very satisfying, as must be admitted, but it is better 

 than past work that has been done on tropical species, 

 most of which was pure guess work. We do not 

 believe any portion of mycology is in a worse condi- 

 tion than that of the foreign Xylarias. 

 636 



Fig. 909. 



