PLEURAGE TT 
«Dr. Rehm* reports this as being a very rare and imperfectly 
understood species. Indeed there is no record at hand of its ever 
having been collected by anyone except Dr. Zopf who originally 
figured and described it. The wide distribution which it has in 
this country would rather lead one to infer that it is more abun- 
dant, however, in Germany than our literature testifies. Dr. Zopf 
described the plant as being densely covered with hairs or rhizoids. 
This is a common but not an invariable characteristic of the 
American plant. This feature, as has been stated, depends here as 
in other species upon the amount of moisture present. By chance 
some of the Missouri material was divided into two parts and 
cultivated in separated chambers. One culture was kept rather 
moist while the other was rather drier than usual. The first pro- 
duced almost no hairs at all above the substratum while the latter 
corresponded exactly with Zopt's description. Both the Missouri 
and the Meridian, N. Y., material produced perithecia in great 
abundance. In either case, three times the number of perithecia 
would have completely covered the substratum. In the case of 
the Aberdeen specimens on culms of Eleocharis palustris, it should 
be stated that the material was collected in May 1896, in a pond 
which contained considerable rubbish.t This species matured on 
this substratum in about one month after being placed in a moist 
chamber. It is, therefore, not to be supposed that the fungus is 
in any way parasitic or even partial to this substratum. 
I7. PLEURAGE CALIFORNICA (Plowr. ) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Plant. 
3: 505. 1898 
Sordaria Californica Plowr. Grevillea, 7: 72. pl. 720. f. 2. 
1878. 
Podospora Californica (Plowr.) E. & E., N. Am. Pyren. 132. 
1892. 
Perithecia large, covered with a dusky brown felt, superficial, 
crowded or scattered, about 1 mm. high: ostiolum naked, rugose, 
often thrown into parallel diverging striae : sporidia elliptico- fusi- 
form, lower end truncate, appendiculate, 30-35 م‎ x 15-18 :م‎ asci 
about 200-300 م‎ long. 
On cow dung. A very well marked and interesting species. 
* Rabenhorst, Kryptogamen-Flora. 
+ See Bull. Torr. Club, 26: 443. 1899. 
