44 NORTH AMERICAN SORDARIACEAE 
caustic potash has about the same effect as water, but the action 
is more energetic. 
The development of this species, while no more interesting than 
many of the other species of the family, is much more striking and 
readily observed. It was one of the most common species met 
with during the month of August, 1900, at Summit, Montana. No 
less than a dozen cultures of it have been made from material col- 
lected in this region. While the perithecia are described as con- 
fluent and superficial they are often found scattered as well; and 
the young groups almost invariably are erumpent from between 
the fibers of the substratum, becoming entirely superficial at ma- 
turity. The young perithecia are a dark somewhat translucent 
brown and become black only after maturity. 
2. SORDARIA MINIMA Sacc. & Speg. Michelia, 1: 373. 1878; 
Fung. Ital. 4. 677. 1879 
Hypocopra minima (Sacc. & Speg.) Sacc. Syll. Fung. 1: 244. 
1882. 
Perithecia scattered, superficial or more often with sunken base, 
100-150 # x 150-180 ہم‎ thin, membranaceous, dark brown to 
black with cellular structure usually invisible, pyriform to conical 
with papilliform to blunt and truncate beak ; exposed portion cov- 
ered with minute papillae. 
Asci 8-spored, cylindrical, broadly rounded to truncate and 
perforate above, and slightly contracted below into a short blunt 
stipe, 5-8 u x 60-85 p: paraphyses filiform but wide in com- 
parison with the ascus, septate, equal to the ascus or slightly longer. 
Spores uniseriate, ellipsoid to subglobose, prominently biguttu- 
late when young but becoming indistinctly so at maturity and 
entirely homogeneous in age, hyaline when young, varying through 
olivaceous to dark brown and opaque, varying but little from 5 x 
5 (IL at 25-27.) 
Distinctive characters: Small black papillate perithecia and 
small spores. 
Cultivated specimens: On goat dung, Ft. Lee, N. J., Nov. 
1899. 
3. SORDARIA HIPPICA (B. & R.) E. & E. North American Pyren. 
127. 31892 
Hypoxylon equinum B. & R. Grevillea, 4: 93. 1876. 
Hypocopra hippica (B. & R.) Sacc. Syll. Fung. 1: 247. 1882. 
Perithecia springing from a thin effused white mycelium ; 
