FUNGI OF ICELAND 473 
many different host-plants, its density is much less than in Central 
Europe. In this respect it falls far short of Pyrenophora chrysospora. 
As is well known, Pleospora herbarum is a very polymorphous species, 
especially with regard to the dimensions of the perithecia, asci and 
spores. But the species is variable in other respects, too. On Saxi- 
fraga corniculata, Primula veris, Pulsatilla vulgaris and Poly- 
gonatum multiflorum the spores of P. herbarum may have a wide 
coating of mucus. On Lotus corniculatus, on which plant the peri- 
thecia may be found on the stem as well as the pods, I have found 
4-spored asci on the stem, and at the same time 8-spored asci on the 
pods. The spores in the 4-spored asci were 48—50X18—20u, whereas 
the spores in the 8-spored asci measured 30—50X 14—15 u. Typically 
the upper and lower halves of the spores are asymmetrical, but on thin 
dead branches of Hippophaés rhamnoides, where P. herbarum also 
occurs, these halves are symmetrical If these deviations from the type 
are constant, the species P. herbarum should rightly be divided into 
several species, but as this has by no means been established, I have 
included the various Icelandic forms under one species. 
The most divergent form of P. herbarum which I have seen in Ice- 
land, is that occurring on Rumex acetosella, which has both spore- 
ends somewhat acuminate, while the breadth of the spores is small com- 
pared with their length, the dimensions being 33—36X11—12 u; hence 
the proportion of length to breadth is 3 in this case, whereas the typical 
value of this ratio ranges from 2 to 2.5. 
Leptosphaeria Cesati et De Notaris. 
81. L. Equiseti Karsten, Fungi in insulis Spetsbergen, p. 101. Stock- 
holm 1872. 
Tröllafoss [Svend Andersen]; Hallormstadir, the plantation at Grund 
south of Akureyri, Almannagjä near Pingvellir [P.L.. — On withered 
pieces of the stem of Equisetum variegatum. 
In the literature two different views of this species prevail. However, 
Karsten’s description of L. Equiseli in Mycologia Fennica II, Pyrenomy- 
cetes. p. 101, will perhaps cover both of them. In The Micromycetes of 
Svalbard, Skrifter om Svalbard og Ishavet, N. 13, Oslo 1928, Pl. II, figs. 
15a and 15b, J. Lind has given a figure of the asci and spores of L. 
Equiseti Karsten, which agrees perfectly with the Leptosphaeria, found 
on Equisetum variegatum in Iceland. But a different conception of L 
Equiseti Karsten has been given by Berlese in Icones Fungorum. 
Pyrenomycetes Vol. I, p. 54. The Leplosphaeria figured here by Berlese 
shows considerable deviation, in regard to the dimensions both of the 
asci and the spores, and especially in regard to the form of spore, from 
Lind’s Svalbard form and from the Icelandic form. On the other hand, 
the diagnosis given in Berlese’s figure agrees with a Leplosphaeria, which 
is very common — at any rate in Denmark — on Equiselum hiemale, 
where it grows on the dead internodes of the stems so common at the 
apices of the stems in all growths of Equisetum hiemale. It must, 
however, be supposed that Berlese received the material for his figure 
of this Leplosphaeria from Karsten, and that Karsten must have in- 
