VOLUME LIV 



NUMBER 5 



4 



THE 



Botanical Gazette 



NOVEMBER 191 2 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF BLASTOCLADIA STRANGU- 



LATA, N. SP. 1 



r 



J. T. Barrett 



(with plates xviii-xx) 



The genus Blastocladia was founded and incompletely described 

 in 1876 by Reinsch (6) on the single species B. Pringsheimii, 



for twenty years remained its sole representative. In 1896 



which 



made 



am 



His studies cleared up several doubtful or unknown points in con- 

 nection with its life-history and development, and led to the descrip- 

 tion of a new species, B. ramosa. Up to the present, so far as the 

 writer is aware, no other species has been added to the genus. 

 Aside from its peculiar characters, the genus is of particular inter- 

 est because of its doubtful systematic position. Because of the 

 resemblance of the resting spores to the deciduous conidia of certain 

 Pythium species, Thaxter (9) placed the genus provisionally 

 among the Pythiaceae. Fischer (i) considers it with the genera 

 which are doubtful or to be excluded from the Saprolegniaceae, 

 while Schroter (7) includes it with the Leptomitaceae. 



The species described in this paper fixes with considerable 

 certainty, the writer believes, the true systematic position of the 

 genus and is therefore described in detail. 



This study was undertaken in the Botanical Laboratory of 

 Cornell University under the supervision of Professor George F. 



1 Contribution from the Department of Botany, Cornell University. No. 140. 



353 



