IIOO 



FUNGI IMPERFECT I 



Genus Cladosporium Link, 1816. 



Definition.— Cladosporiaceae with decumbent hyphse. Conidio- 

 phores bearing smooth, uniform conidia arranged in short chains or 

 sohtary. 



Etymology.— The name is derived from KXaSo?, ' a young 

 shoot/ 



Remarks, — -The type species is Cladosporium herbariuM Persoon, 

 1 801, and there are a very large number of species scattered all over 

 the world, and commonly found on plants in tropical gardens, from 

 whence the spores can easily be conveyed to the human skin, and 

 either grow there, causing a lesion, or simply remain sheltered among 

 the scales of other lesions, from which they may be grown in 

 pure culture, thus giving rise to the impression that they may be 

 causal organisms, but the}^ do not agglutinate with the patient's 

 serum. 



They may also grow as contaminations of laboratory media, so 

 commonly may their spores be found in the air. The two species 

 known in man may be recognized as follows :— 



Habitat, tinea nigra— Species Cladosporium 



mansoni (Castellani, 1908). 

 Habitat, ulcerating nodules — -Species Clado- 

 sporium penicilloides Gueguen, 1911. 



Cladosporium mansoni Castellani, 1905. 



Synonyms.— Microsporon mansoni Castellani, 

 1905; Foxia mansoni Castellani, 1908; Clado- 

 sporium mansoni Pinoy, 1912. 



The fungus is found very abundantly in the 

 lesions of tinea nigra; the mycelial articles are 

 rather short— 18 to 20 jbc in length and 2J to 

 3j p, in breadth; non-ramified. Sometimes they 

 may be irregular in outline, bent, banana- 

 shaped. The spores are globular, and most of 

 them very large- — -5 to 10 p. They are fre- 

 quently arranged in clusters. 



The fungus is easily cultivated by inoculating 

 scrapings of the affected patches on maltose agar. 

 After two to four days roundish hemispheric colonies 

 appear, which are black, but at first have usually a 

 riG. 582. Cladospo- greenish tinge, and may present at the periphery some 

 rtum mansoni Cks- radiating, delicate, pale greenish hyphae. These 

 TELLANi. Young colonies may remain separate or more often gradually 

 Agar Culture. coalesce into a jet-black knobby mass, deeply rooted 

 into the medium. 



The fungus grows well, though less abundantly, on the other sugar agars, 

 and also on ordinary agar. In hroth and peptone-water the growth is very 

 slow, and takes place at the botton of the tubes, with formation of a black 

 or greenish-black sediment. Gelatine is very slowly liquefied. 



