26o BULLETIN 94. 



develop sporangia when the conditions of the environment, which 

 have not all been determined, are such as to produce this tendency 

 to fruit in the organism. 



I have found the fungus in the prothallia ofAspidmm (Cyrtomi- 

 um) falcatum, Pteris argyria and Pt. cretica. 



It was first described by Lohde 27 and was later more thoroughly 

 studied by Leitgeb, 28 who grew it in a large number of fern pro- 

 thallia. 



A NEW CUTTING BED FUNGUS. 

 Volutella leucotricha Atkinson. 



April loth (1894) two cuttings, in the botanical conservatory, 

 of carnations which were damping off were called to my attention. 

 These were placed in a moist chamber expecting to obtain the 

 sterile fungus or an Artotrogus. Two days later, i2th, the stems 

 were well covered with a fungus which formed elevated stromata, 

 whitish in color or with a slight tinge of flesh color. With a 

 hand glass the stroma was seen to be surrounded by several setae, 

 which, however, did not present at the time a dark color as is the 

 case with the common carnation anthracnose, Volutella dianthi 

 (Hals.). At the time it was supposed that this lack of color in the 

 setae might be due to the growth. Sections of the stromata showed 

 the structure of a Volutella, but the conidia were considerably 

 smaller than those of V. dianthi and the setae were quite different 

 in form as well as in color. They taper but little toward the free 

 ends, are quite blunt at the ends and usually more times septate. 



At my request Mr. R. H. Pettit, a student in my laboratory, 

 made a separation of the fungus for me by the agarp late method. 

 The first trial was successful and in a few days the colonies of the 

 Volutella were visible to the unaided eye, the conidia having been 

 kept watch of during the stage of germination and the formation 

 of the colonies. The growth of the colonies is quite different 

 from that of the V. dianthi as well as the development of the 

 fruiting hyphae, and there was no longer any doubt that it was 



*7 Ueber einige neue parasitische Pilze. Tagebl. d. 47 Vers. deutscher 

 Naturf. u. Aertze, 203, 1874. 



88 Completoria complens Lohde, ein in Farnprothallien schrnarotzender 

 Pilz. Sitzungsb. d. math, naturw. Klasse d. K. Akad. d. Wiss. LXXXIV, I, 

 288, 1881. 



