98 NORTH AMERICAN SORDARIACEAE 
7. HvPocoPRA MERDARIA (Fries) Fries, Summa Veg. Scand. 
397. 1849; Cohn’s Krypt.-Flora Schlesien, 3°: 289. 1894; 
Rabenhorst, Krypt.-Flora, 1": 178. 1887. 
Sphaeria merdaria Fries, Elenchus Fungorum, 2: 100. 1828. 
Sordaria merdaria (Fries) Awd. Abhand. naturforsch. Gesell. 
zu Hale, yx: 72. Ah 7 fe 1875: 
Coprolepra merdaria (Fries) Fuckel, Symb. Mycol. 240. 
1869. 
Perithecia scattered or aggregated in clusters of 2 to 4, sunken 
with a black shining small papilliform beak projecting through 
a disk-shaped or confluent smooth black bare flat or often 
slightly convex stroma, about two-thirds mm. in diameter, sub- 
globose to pyriform, membranaceous and colorless, densely cov- 
ered below the stroma with: a fine colorless mycelium which 
ramifies through the substratum and becomes differentiated into a 
true stroma in its upper exposed layers. 
Asci 8-spored, cylindrical, broadly rounded above and sud- 
denly contracted below into a short blunt stipe, quite persistent, 
24-32 u x 2600-3204; apical structure prominent and staining 
blue with iodine: paraphyses filiform, و"‎ upward, septate, 
longer than the asci and mixed with t 
Spores obliquely uniseriate, ellipsoid, rounded at both ends, 
18-24 4 X 34-40, ranging from hyaline when young through 
yellow to dark brown and opaque ; germinal slit lateral, one-half 
to two-thirds the length of the spore, and indistinct at maturity ; 
gelatinous envelope prominent and swelling greatly when placed 
in water. (Pl. 12. f. 9-14. 
Distinctive characters : Small shield-shaped scattered stromata, 
uniseriate and nonapiculate spores. 
Dry specimens: On horse dung, Hermosa, Col, March 1899 
(Baker, communicated by Earle); horse dung, Horsetooth Moun- 
tain, Oct. 1898 (Sandsten) ; horse and cow dung, Summit and 
Great Falls, Mont., Aug. 1900 (Griffiths & Lange). 
Cultivated specimens : On cow dung, Highmore, S. D., Sept. 
1899 (Carter); cow dung, Rooks Co., Kan., July 1899 (Bartholo- 
mew); cow dung, Biloxi, Miss., Aug. 1899 (Tracy); horse and 
cow dung, Summit and Family, Mont., Aug. 1900 (Griffiths & 
Lange) ; Santa Catalina Mts., Ariz., Nov. 1900. 
The measurements given for this species vary considerably 
with those of the ordinary descriptions. This is not because the 
American forms are different from the European, but because the 
