12 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [juLy 
This striking species has been met with but twice, growing not very 
abundantly on rather old cultures. Its peculiar spores and secondary sporo- 
phores, which have already been described in detail, serve to distinguish it 
at once from all other known species. 
Syncephalis tenuis, nov. sp. Plate II, figs. 22-31. 
Fertile hyphe septate at the base, very elongate, tapering to 
a slender extremity which expands abruptly to form the fertile 
head, the latter somewhat flattened and bearing from six to 
many sporangial filaments arising from all parts of its upper 
surface or arranged in a more or less definite circle each produc- 
ing two spores. Spores sub-cylindrical to asymmetrically oval, 
truncate or bluntly rounded, the cylindrical form 20-25 by 7», 
the oval form 25-27 by 10-11. Fertile hyphae 500-700 by 7# 
(at the base) to 4-5 (at the apex). Sporiferous head (without 
spores) 10-20 in diameter. 
On Sphagnum in laboratory cultures, Kittery Point, Me. 
This species is remarkable for its very slender habit and relatively large 
spores. It has made its appearance twice in cultures of Sphagnum on which 
were zygospores of an unknown zygomycete,’ the orange yellow coherent waxy 
masses of which are not infrequently found in swampy places on this host, 
usually at the tip of its axis, occurring more rarely on other substances like 
decaying wood, etc. These zygospores, which are oblong and orange and 
are produced by budding upward from the point of union of the two gametes 
as in species of Syncephalis, although they are widely different in their color, 
form, and condition of aggregation from any of the known zygospores of this 
genus, may possibly be connected with the present species; but as all 
attempts to cultivate them under test conditions have thus far proved fruit- 
less, and as the same cultures of Sphagnum on which they were growing have 
also yielded a new Martensella (in my opinion a zygomycete), two species of 
Mortierella, and a peculiar orange-colored Mucor, it is doubtful which, if any, 
of all these forms should be connected with them. The species is very 
inconspicuous, extremely delicate, and does not grow luxuriantly. The two 
varieties, the one with nearly cylindrical and the other with sub-oval spores, 
might be mistaken for distinct species, the latter variety producing fewer and 
larger spores borne on a smaller head terminating a more slender stalk ; but 
the material examined appears to show much variability in these respects. 
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. 
?This fungus corresponds closely to the description of Endogone xylogena 
Schroter. 
