4 BULLETIN 380, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Fries (31, p. 73) had at that time, according to his own statement, 
authentic specimens of Sphaeria gyrosa sent him by Schweinitz and 
also the specimens collected by Guepin and Levieux in France, 
which he identified as this species. In Fries’s herbarium at Upsala 
at present are found specimens of true S. gyrosa Schw. with 
Schweinitz’s autograph label, but no specimens of S. gyrosa could 
be found attributed to Guepin or Levieux. There is a small packet 
marked “Sph. gyrosa,” apparently in Fries’s handwriting, but 
there seems to have been some confusion in the labeling or mounting 
of this specimen, as a small stroma of Zypoxylon annulatum which 
does not look at all like Endothia is included. The other piece 
consists of an irregular pycnidial stroma which may be the southern 
European specimens referred to in the description quoted. Fries’s 
identification of this European material as £. gyrosa was apparently 
based chiefly upon its superficial resemblance to the pycnidial 
stromata of Schweinitz’s American specimens. The senior writer has 
seen and made a careful microscopic examination of a specimen col- 
lected by Guepin in France and preserved in De Notaris’s herbarium 
at Rome. It is labeled “ Sphaeria gyrosa Fries, Guepin, Angers.” 
The specific name “gyrosa” has been crossed out by De Notaris 
and “radicalis Schw.” written above it and the date “ April, 1845,” 
added. This appears to be a part of the same collection that 
Guepin sent to Fries, as the specimen agrees well with Fries’s 
description and consists chiefly of pycnidial stromata which are 
rather larger than is usual for Sphaeria radicalis and show con- 
siderable superficial resemblance to the stromata of Sphaeria gyrosa 
Schw. A thorough examination of this specimen, however, reveals 
a few perithecia and ascospores, which leave no doubt that it is 
8. radicalis of Schweinitz, as indicated by De Notaris on the label. 
What the plant sent Fries by Levieux was is unknown, as no speci- 
men so labeled could be found in Fries’s herbarium. It appears 
from all the evidence at hand that Fries was mistaken in his identi- 
fication of the material from Levieux and Guepin, as no specimens 
of the true Sphaeria gyrosa Schw. have yet been seen from Europe. 
There seems to be no doubt, however, that Fries intended the true 
Sphaeria gyrosa Schw. to represent the type of his genus Endothia, 
as he had a part of Schweinitz’s original collection at the time and 
never definitely placed any other species in the genus; hence, 
Sphaeria gyrosa Schw. should be adopted as the nomenclatorial 
type of the genus. It is clear from Fries’s writings and specimens 
that he knew Sphaeria radicalis Schw., as he had American speci- 
mens from Schweinitz as well as European collections at the time 
he founded this genus. He did not, however, apparently regard it 
as congeneric with S. gyrosa. His specimens of S. radicalis show 
