It may be well to glaiiec at what has been written on the sub- 

 ject in Italy. The earliest refei-ence known to me is that of Itn- 

 doli^hi in Linnaea, 1829, where the Endothia is said to grow on 

 Qiicrciis Jlc.v, (J. jHihcii.s and ('(IsIhiku rcsva. Later accounts 

 were given by (.'esati and l)e Notaris in 18()3 in their Schema and 

 the Spliaeriacei Italica, where there is a good description and a 

 rather crude figure api)arently diawn from somewliat immature 

 specimens, for the s|)()res are represented as one celled, althougli 

 in the descrii)t ion they are said to be sometimes obscurely two- 

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

 <lenuded roots of oaks and chestnuts in Xortlierii Italy and to 

 occur also on elms. 



Italian specimens were disiribuled in Kabeidioi-st"s Herbarium 

 Mycologicum, Thuemenis, Mycotheca Universalis ami Saccardo 

 Mycotheca Yeneta; but in the co]iies which I have examined the 

 si)ecimens had si)ermogonia but no asci. The most receid notice 

 of the fungus in Italy is that of Traverso in I'lora italica ('ryP" 

 togama, in 1!MH5, who uses the name IJiitlol Ii'ki (/i/rosd. \{ is said 

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

 Juglans, and (^uercus, and to occur not only in Europe and 

 North America but even in Ceylon and Ncav Zealand. 



We have early notices of the fungus in l'''rance. In 1830 Fries 

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

 Tulasne in his Car]>ologia, Vol. II, 1863, gave a long notice of 

 the fungus, which he says grows on Carpinus, Avith 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 1880, in liabenhorst's Crytogamen Flora, stated that the En- 

 (lolJiid grew on different deciduous trees in (xermany. The 

 records of the fungus in France ami (iermany are less satisfac- 

 tory than its record in Italy, and the sjx'cimens dislrilmted from 

 the former c(nintries in exsieeati are few and jxtor. 



From this rather long account of the history of the chestnut 

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

 ch(»stnut tree fungus is A\Mdely spread in Europe and is common 

 in Northern Italy, wliei'e it was tirst noticed as long ago a's 1820. 

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

 that it grows on bai-k, dried bi'anches, and dead roots, rather 

 than on living bramdies, and the hosts on which it is said to grow 



