﻿VOLUME XXXV 



NUMBER 3 



t 



Botanical Gazeti 



MARCH, 1Q03 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CRYPTOGAMIC LABOR- 

 ATORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. LIV. 



NEW OR PECULIAR NORTH AMERICAN HYPHOMYCETES. III. 



Roland Thaxter. 



(with plates IV AND v) 



During a brief visit to Jamaica in the winter of 1890-91, the 

 writer obtained, among numerous other interesting coprophilous 

 forms, two peculiar genera of hyphomycetous fungi, both of 

 which have been kept constantly in cultivation ever since. 

 Although both these types are conspicuous, and appear to be 

 Widely distributed, no reference to either of them has been found 

 in the literature, and it is assumed that they have been thus far 

 overlooked. 



The most striking and peculiar of these genera, to which I 

 nave given the name Heterocephalum, has the appearance of a 

 very large Aspergillus, of a delicate orange-yellow color, from 

 the head of which project numerous radiating spines or bristles, 

 visible to the naked eye, the whole {fig. i) recalling the condi- 

 tions seen in Actiniceps. This resemblance is further strength- 

 ened from the fact that the spiniferous head is borne on a stalk 

 which appears to be composed of numerous slender ascending 

 %phae, and at first sight one might be inclined to place the 

 plant among the Hyalostilbeae. ' An examination of the early 

 development of this fructification, however, makes it evident 

 that It belongs to a quite different type, which appears to be, in 

 some respects, unique among the Hyphomycetes. 



The vegetative portion of the fungus consists of a copious 



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