G48 MINNESOTA BOTANICAL STUDIES 



light- colored ones. This is one of the few groups in which the 

 distinction between the light-colored and the dark-colored 

 forms may be maintained without necessitating the separation 

 of nearly related forms. 



1. TORULA Pers. Syn. Fung. 693. 1801 (as a sub-genus). 



Including Hormiscium Kunze, Sacc. Syl. Fung. 4:268. 

 1886. 



Vegetative hyphae decumbent or none; sporophore very 

 short and scarcely distinct from the chains of conidia; conidia 

 uniform black or brown, continuous, oblong, fusoid, globose, 

 or cuboid. 



All gradations are met with between species with oblong and 

 fusoid and those with cuboid conidia. Hence it does not seem 

 possible to maintain Hormiscium which is only distinguished 

 by its cuboid conidia. 



About 30 species are described or reported from the United 

 States. 



2. SPEIRA Corda. Ic. Fung. 1:9. 1837. 



Botryosporium Schw. Syn. Am. Bor. 306. 1834, not Corda 1831. 

 Symphragmidium Strauss, Sturm D. C. Fl. III. 34:41. 1853. 



Vegetative hyphae creeping, sparingly branched, subhya- 

 line, or in some species apparently wanting; sporophores very 

 short, making the conidia appear subsessile or short- stipitate; 

 conidia fuliginous, catenulate, in two or more series from each 

 sporophore, the chains at first cohering and producing the ap- 

 pearance of a single muriform-septate spore, but separating at 

 maturity. 



5 species are reported from the United States. 



3. DICTYOSPORIUM Corda. Ic. Fung. 2: 87. 1838. 

 Hyphae none, conidia ovate or subcordate, composed of ag- 

 glutinated parallel series of septate filaments. 



Differs from Speira in that the chains of cells do not separate 

 at maturity and in being without a sporophore. 

 3 species are reported from the United States. 



4. BISPORA Corda. Ic. Fung. 1 : 9. 1837. 

 Sporophores very short; conidia oblong, one-septate, fusc- 

 ous, catenulate, the chains simple or branched. 



3 species are reported from the United States. 



