SPORORMIA 117 
opens onto the surface, 90-120 yin diameter, thin membranaceous, 
brown, without any visible beak, the ostiolum being simply an 
opening in the wall of the perithecium. 
Asci 8-spored, cylindrical, broaaly rounded above and con- 
tracted below into a rather broad stout stipitate base, rather per- 
sistent, 12-16 # x 70-Soy: paraphyses filiform, septate, sparingly 
branched, longer than the asci and mixed with them. 
Spores parallel, firmly united into a cylindrical truncate mass 
in the center of the ascus, 3.5-4 م‎ x 50-54 ,م‎ 16-celled with the 
end cells nearly twice the length of the others, the whole mass 
of spores surrounded bya very narrow hyaline gelatinous covering 
which does not adhere to the individual spores when isolated. (ZZ. 
17. f. 4-0. 
Distinctive character : Fasciculated spores. 
Cultivated specimens : On cow dung, Proctor, Vt., Aug. 1899 
(Banker) ; cow dung, Rooks Co., Kan., July 1899 (Bartholomew) ; 
cow dung, Austin, Texas, Jan. 1900 (Long); sheep dung, Biloxi, 
Miss., Sept. 1899 (Tracy); sheep dung, Brookings, S. D., Nov. 
1899 (Carter). 
15. SPORORMIA HERCULEA E. & E., N. Am. Pyren. 135. 1892; 
Saccardo, Syll. Fung. II: 329. 1895 
Perithecia sunken, scattered, with a projecting black cylindri- 
cal beak which terminates in an enlarged black warty irregularly 
expanded or even forked extremity, about 440—550 nu in diameter, 
globular, membranaceous to coriaceous, sometimes inclined to be 
brittle, black, and opaque. 
Asc 8-spored, clavate or slightly fusiform, broadly rounded 
above and contracted below into a short blunt stipe, quite per- 
sistent, 45-604 x 225-300: paraphyses filiform, abundant, 
septate, slightly constricted below, longer than the asci and mixed 
with them. 
Spores obliquely two- or three-seriate, 1 1—16-celled, cylindrical 
to very slightly fusiform, rounded or subacute at the ends, deeply 
constricted and easily separable into individual cells, 18—21 م‎ x 
135-1504; the second to the fifth cell from above in the upper 
spore of ascus being much larger than any of the others ; ordinary 
cells 13-16 ہر‎ x 16-21 p; large cell about 18 ۸ x 24 p, ranging 
from hyaline and decidedly fusiform when young through yellow 
to dark brown opaque and cylindrical. (PX. r7. f. 1-3. 
Distinctive characters: The peculiar beak of the perithecium 
and the peculiar upper spore of the ascus. 
Dry specimens : On cow dung, Newfield, N. J., March: and 
Apr. 1891 (Ellis). 
