400 : The Botanical Gazette: (December, 
Rods forming free cysts, in which they remain unmodified. 
Cysts various, sessile or borne on a more or less highly devel- 
oped cystophore. ' 
CHONDROMYCES CROCATUS B. & C. Plates XXII, XXIII, 
figs. I—IT. 
Chondromyces crocatus: B. & C. in Berk. Introd. Crypt. Bot. p. 313, fig. 70,a 
(no descr.) Berkeley in Grevillea, 11, p. 64 (descr.) Cooke in Bull. Buff. Soc. 
at. Sci. m, p. 192. Saccardo, Sylloge Fungorum 1y, p. : : 
Aspergillus crocatus: B. & C. in herb, Curtis, and herb. Berkeley (sec, Farlow). 
Colonies pale orange red. Rods cylindrical or tapering 
slightly straight or slightly curved, 2.5-6x .6—.7y. Cysto- 
phore orange colored, slender, simple or 1—5 times success- 
ively branched, striate, spirally twisted or irregularly bent; 
average height 600, rarely 1. mm. Cysts pale straw colored, 
at first fusiform, at maturity sub-conical, rounded at the apex, 
often ragged at the base. Average dimensions 28xX124 
(15-45 x 6-20), in variable numbers at the tips of the cysto- 
phore where they form globose heads, 70-90 in diameter. 
South Carolina, Ravene/, in herb. Curtis and herb. Berkeley, 
on decaying melon rind. Cambridge Mass., on old straw. 
he specimens of this plant in the Curtis collection corres- 
pond in all respects with the Cambridge material which made 
its 4ppearance on some old straw sent from Ceylon, and has 
been kept in cultivation in the laboratory, growing readily on 
nutrient agar and luxuriantly on sterilized horse dung. Ac- 
cording as the substratum is moist or dry the general habit 
may vary considerably, excessive moisture often producing 
considerable irregularity in the form and number of the cysts 
as well as in the cystophore, which is thicker under these 
conditions, more irregularly branched and without the spiral 
or longitudinal striations (due to wrinkles of the surface) usu- 
ally characteristic of the slender forms. 
Cultures of the cysts in Van Tieghem cells have yielded 
few germinations after several months, but it may be readily 
observed by placing in a moist chamber a specimen which has 
been kept dry. By examining such a specimen after one or 
two days the germinating cysts may be seen in all conditions. 
At first the contents becomes slightly contracted within the 
cyst-wall and in it the separate rods may be distinctly seen; — 
then through the absorption of the wall usually at its base, 
_ the rods are allowed to make their escape in a continuous , 
_ Stream till nothing but the empty cyst-wall is left behind. 
he mature cysts show none of the reddish coloring pecu- 
