REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I915 35 



75-90 x 8-15 fi, sometimes stipitate ; paraphyses obscure, almost 

 lacking among the older asci and then suggesting a Sphaerulina, but 

 evident among the undeveloped asci. 



Sporidia hyaline, elliptic, tri-septate, irregularly uniseriate, often 

 biseriate near the middle or at the apex of the ascus, variable in 

 size, 15-22 x 5-8 /a. 



On dead twigs of Staphylea trifoliata L. West Park, 

 Ulster county, N. Y. H. D. House, May 6, 191 5. Also collected 

 on the same host at Green pond, near Jamesville, Onondaga county, 

 May 11, 1915. Type in the herbarium of the New York State 

 Museum. 



Metasphaeria staphylina (Pk.) Sacc. proves to be, 

 upon examination of the type material, a species of Hysterium and 

 is redescribed in another place. 



Metasphaeria varia Dearness & House, sp. nov. 



Perithecia thickly scattered, ^2 mm apart or crowded, seated in 

 the cortex and producing a black stain on the surface of the wood, 

 rupturing and raising the cuticle into pustules about .3 mm in 

 diameter, depressed globose with short very variable ostiola, in 

 section white with a dark border. 



Asci sparsely paraphysate but covered by a brownish layer of 

 apparently paraphysal origin, adhering as though in a mucilaginous 

 matrix and separable with difficulty, clavate, thick-walled, 75-100 tt. 



Sporidia hyaline, biseriate, constricted, upper half larger, some- 

 times separating at the constriction, very variable in size from 

 15 x 3 /* to 27 x 7 fx or even 33 x 6 /x, and in septation 3-8 septate, 

 quite frequently 4 septate in the upper half and 3 septate in the 

 lower one, occasionally longitudinally septate between two septa. 



On dead branches of Rhus copallina L. North Bay, 

 Oneida county. H. D. House, June 22, 1915. Type in the herbar- 

 ium of the New York State Museum. 



Massaria plumigera E. & E. 

 var. tetraspora Dearness & House, var. nov. 



Sporidia variable but larger than those of the type, the largest 

 measuring 82x21/1; asci 4-spored, 125-165 x 32-40 fi; paraphyses 

 filiform and longer than the asci. As in the type the sporidia are 

 permanently hyaline. 



On dead twigs of Viburnum dentatum Linn. Albany, 

 N. Y. Collected by H. D. House, May- June, 191 5. Type in the 

 2 



