OF THE UNITED STATES. 21 



amount of the gelatinous expansion on the exterior, how destructive a particular species 

 IS to the plant on which it is growing. Q. macro-pus, for example, is much more striking 

 to the eye than a. clavipes, but the latter is more destructive to the plants upon which 

 it grows. 



Gtmkosporangium Ellisii (Berk). 

 Plate 2, figs. 13-17. 



Podisoma Ellisii Berke., Grevillea, Vol. in, p. 56; Farlow, Bull. Bnssey Inst., Vol. 



II, p. 226. Exsicc. Thiimen, Herb. Mycol. Oeconom., 440. 

 Hamaspora Ellisii Kornicke, Hedwigia, Vol. xvi, p. 22. 

 Gymiiosporangium Ellisii, in Ellis's North American Fungi, Fasc. in, No. 271. 



Sporiferous masses numerous, scattered, cylindrical, filiform, from one-eighth to a quar- 

 ter of an inch high ; spores dark yellow, linear-fusiform, obtuse, usually 3-4 celled, some- 

 times 1-5 celled, 10,11^16//. in diameter, 75,u-190^ long, average 120,ii-150^; pedicels long 

 and slender ; promycelia short and much curved, usually one from each cell. Myceliu m 

 perennial, distorting the smaller branches. 



On Cupressus thyoides. 



Newfield, N. J. (Ellis) ; Newton, Dedham, Wood's HoU, Mass. (Farlow). 



This is one of the many interesting species of fangi discovered by Mr. J. B. Ellis at 

 Newfield, N. J. Previous to May, 1872, when it was first seen by Mr. Ellis, the species 

 was quite unknown, although it is apparently not uncommon in the so-called cedar swamps 

 along our eastern coast. It is the smallest and least gelatinous of the genus, but the 

 trees attacked by it may be recognized, even at a considerable distance, by the peculiar 

 distortions, which consist in a dense fasciculation of the smaller branches in different parts 

 of the tree, so that, when viewed from a distance, one sees closely branching tufts of a 

 somewhat fan-shaped or corymbose outline, which appear to terminate some of the 

 branches. The fungus itself is only visible on close inspection. The branches affected are 

 thickly covered with the sporiferous masses, which, when dry, are of a reddish-brown color, 

 not very different from that of the bark itself, and which, when moistened, are orange-col- 

 ored, and not generally more than from an eighth to a quarter of an inch long. The spe- 

 cies is often associated with G. biseptatum which produces an entirely different distortion, 

 affecting generally the larger branches. The leaves themselves are, however, but little dis- 

 torted by the present species. The mycelium of G. Ellisii is of rather large size and in 

 cross sections of the stems is seen to follow the medullary rays, sometimes extending 

 nearly to the centre of the stem, and occasionally forming partial circles between the an- 

 nual rings. In longitudinal sections of affected branches one sees the mycelium collected 

 in brownish spots which extend far into the wood. The greater part of the mycelium is 

 found near the cambium and it collects in masses in the bark to form the sporiferous bodies 

 which originate at some little distance beneath the surface. The mycelium is perennial and 

 extends gradually along the branches sometimes for a distance of eighteen inches, and 

 they swell to about once and a half their normal diameter. 



