a 
A monograph of the genera Chaetomium and Ascotricha* - 
А. H. CHIVERS 
(WITH PLATES 6-17) 
INTRODUCTION 
In 1902 the writer attempted to arrange and classify a con- 
siderable number of specimens of Chaetomium which were then 
in his herbarium at Hanover, New Hampshire, and which were 
collected by him in various localities in New England. At that 
time the only available monograph was the well-known work of 
Zopf (113) which contained descriptions of ten species only. 
While it was possible to identify certain forms in the collection, 
others were laid aside until more information could be obtained. 
The study of these first collections, however, aroused so much 
interest that the writer was led to continue his work on these 
fungi, and since that’ time he has been engaged in the preparation 
of an illustrated monograph of the genus. 
It became evident from further examination of the literature 
that no adequate work on the genus was available, and that from 
а systematic standpoint it had become greatly confused owing to 
the multiplication of species which are either synonyms, in many 
Cases even of species not belonging to this genus, ог are described 
without recognizable figures or full and comparative descriptions. 
Some time after, when this work was well under way, a mono- 
graph of the genus by Bainier (3) appeared, in which twenty- 
two species and three varieties were described and illustrated, 
some of which proved to be American, while twelve species 
and two varieties were described as new. This monograph, 
although in some respects more comprehensive, was nevertheless 
like that of Zopf by no means complete. No mention was made 
of work by American authors or with two exceptions of English 
literature on the subject, while the repeated use for new species 
of names already preoccupied introduced a further element of 
confusion. 
* Contributions from the Cryptogamic Laboratory of Harvard E rd 
ss 
No. LXXVI, Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club, Volume 14, No. 3- 
June то, 1915. 
155 
