VOLUME XXIV NUMBER 1 
B@EANICAL (GAZETTE 
FOLY 2807 
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CRYPTOGAMIC LABO- 
RATORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. XL. 
NEW OR PECULIAR ZYGOMYCETES. 2. SYNCEPHALASTRUM 
AND SYNCEPHALIS. 
ROLAND THAXTER. 
(WITH PLATES I AND II) 
ALTHOUGH the Mucorinee, from their great variety and 
from the ease with which they may be cultivated, offer an 
attractive field for investigation, they appear to have received 
but scant attention in this country, if one may judge from the 
infrequent references to them that are found in our literature, 
and their meager representation in ‘“ Floras”’ in which they are 
listed. It must be well known, however, to anyone who has 
used them for teaching purposes that they are among the most 
varied and abundant of our moulds. The somewhat limited 
experience of the writer would indicate that our Mucor flora is 
a very rich one, since all the described genera, with two or three 
exceptions, appear to be for the most part well represented in 
it; and thanks to the admirable papers of A. Fischer and others, 
but primarily to those of Van Tieghem, whose writings may 
well serve as models for such work, their systematic study pre- 
sents comparatively few difficulties except in so far as concerns 
the more obscure species of the genus Mucor. 
The American species included in the group of so-called 
Cephalidez seem to be even less well known than those of the 
