2 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
mucors proper, and although Professor Farlow has mentioned 
the occurrence of two species,’ Syncephalis sphaerica and Pipto- 
cephalis Freseniana, in Massachusetts, with the exception of the 
present writer’s note on Dispira in a former number of the 
GAZETTE there appears to have been no further mention of the 
occurrence of any American member of the group; although it 
comprises many of the more striking fungi that are found in labo- 
ratory cultures. 
Among the species of Syncephalis which have come under 
the writer’s notice there are several that seem to be distinct 
from any of the forms previously described, and are of interest 
not only from the fact that they serve further to illustrate the 
specific peculiarities of a genus distinguished for its remarkable 
types, but also for the reason that in two of the forms enumer- 
ated the process of spore-formation can be followed with greater 
accuracy than is possible in any of the commoner species known 
to the writer. In the same connection a brief account may be 
given of the sporulation of Syncephalastrum, a genus the char- 
acteristics of which appear to be but little known, and prove to 
possess considerable interest. 
It is well known that authorities are by no means agreed as 
to the homologies of the non-sexual reproductive organs of the 
Cephalidee; what we may call for convenience the French 
school following the opinion of Van Tieghem in considering the 
‘“‘spore-rows”’ of this group as the homologues of the sporangia 
in typical mucors, from which they are held to differ merely by 
reason of the fact that they are cylindrical instead of spherical 
in shape, and contain a single row of superposed spores endo- 
genously produced instead of a more or less indefinite rounded 
mass. The walls of these spores having been formed in close 
union with those of the sporangium, the latter appears finally to 
break up into a row of spores that present the appearance of 
having been exogenous in origin. Within the past year the con- 
clusions of Van Tieghem have been further substantiated through 
the researches of M. Léger, who states that his studies confirm 
* Bull. Bussey Instit. 2: 224, 1878; 7. ¢. 1: 431. 1871. 
