CAPNODIUM 165 



it is very important that where such fungi do exist, they 

 should be recognised and preserved and not destroyed as 

 most fungi present on living parts of plants are, or ought to 

 be. I have shown elsewhere that species of Aschersonia^ 

 which hitherto were only known to produce a conidial form 

 of reproduction, when parasitic on insects on living leaves, 

 also produce an ascigerous form of fruit, following the conidial 

 stage, when the leaves are dead and fallen. Such dead leaves 

 should be allowed to remain until the ascigerous form of 

 fruit is matured, the spores of which give origin to the 

 conidial J; stage which attacks the insects present on living 

 leaves. 



Massee, fourn. Bot.^ 34, p. 357 (1896). 

 Swingle and Webber, 7.5. Dep. Agric., Dep. Veget. and 

 PhysioL, Bull. No. 8. 



Webber, I.e., Bull. No. 13. 



CAPNODIUM (MONT.) 



Mycelium effused, black, perithecia simple or branched, 

 cylindrical, mouth narrowed and often torn or fringed; asci 

 elongated; spores 3-4 septate or muriform, coloured. 



Willow sooty mould (Capnodium salicinum, Mont.) often 

 covers the leaves of willows with a dense black felt consisting 

 of much branched and interwoven hyphae ; these are attached 

 to the surface of the leaf by a thin layer of cells with sub- 

 gelatinous walls by which they are glued together into a thin 

 pellicle, which in turn is cemented to the surface of the leaf. 

 At times this membrane breaks away from the leaf and peels 

 off in fragments, carrying along with it the entire film of 

 mycelium. Many different forms of conidial reproduction 

 have been described, but the life-history of this species, in 

 common with that of the allied forms of sooty mould, is by 

 no means well known. Numerous horn-like, simple, or 

 branched conceptacles are produced, which contain conidia 

 of different forms and sizes. The true ascigerous perithecia 

 are more or less cylindrical, apex somewhat thickened, and 

 contain numerous asci, each containing 6-8 spores of a brown 

 colour, 3-septate, the central cells often with one or two 

 vertical septa. The fungus is not a parasite, but feeds on 

 honey-dew deposited on the leaf by insects. 



