PLEURAGE 61 
and cow dung, Proctor, Vt, Aug. 1899 (Banker); cow dung, 
Rooks Co., Kan., July, 1899 (Bartholomew). 
Although this species is described in our literature with simple 
gelatinous appendages, there is no question but the European as 
well as the American forms have these appendages double. This 
feature is not always easy to determine in dried specimens but it 
can always be readily determined in fresh material when the spores 
are first released from the asci. All of the Italian * exsiccati at 
hand show unmistakable evidences of this characteristic even in 
the dry state. The hairiness of the beak of the perithecium is a 
characteristic of considerable variation. Some of the Missouri 
and Highmore, S. D., specimens show only a very few, short, 
scattered hairs, while others from other localities show all grada- 
tions between these forms and the typical ones. Careful examina- 
tion of New York material has revealed the fact that these hairs 
are rather later in their development than similar structures in 
other species. Often one may find perithecia containing spores 
which are apparently mature with only very young imperfectly 
formed hairs on them. Later these develop into the normal 
condition. It would appear that the maturity of the spores 
can not be determined by the arbitrary characteristic of colora- 
tion, for they are not ejected from the ascus in this species 
until the external ornamentation of the perithecium has become 
mature. In other species, on the contrary, the spores are dis- 
charged as soon as they assume the brown coloration, and the 
asci will stretch in water even while the spores are greenish in 
color. 
The mycelium of this species develops very rapidly in all direc- 
tions from the germinating spores. In several cultures the peri- 
thecia developed on paper at a distance of 2-6.5 cm. from the 
substratum containing the spores. Indeed, in nearly every cul- 
ture made, the perithecia developed on the paper which was placed 
under the dung, to a greater or less extent. The species appears 
to be suited to a paper medium as well as the Chaetomiaceae or 
Sordaria fimicola. As shown above, the species has often been 
collected on paper and similar substrata in nature. 
* Saccardo, Mycotheca Veneta nos. 1178 and 1179; Cavara, Fungi Longobardiae 
exsic. no. 226. 
