NOTES ON NORTH AMERICAN HYPO- 

 CREALES— IV. ASCHERSONIA AND 

 HYPOCRELLA 



F. J. Seaver 

 (With Plate 6) 



The perfect stage of Aschersonia turbinata was recently de- 

 scribed by Dr. Roland Thaxter, 1 but the generic position of the 

 fungus was left an open question. In that paper Dr. Thaxter 

 states that so far as he knows no ascosporic condition has previ- 

 ously been observed in any of the group (Aschersoniae) . After 

 a study of the tropical material and literature at hand, the writer 

 is convinced that this apparent failure to detect the perfect stage 

 of this genus is due not so much to its absence as to the fact that 

 whenever the perfect stage is found, the fungus is at once and 

 quite properly referred to some other genus, to Hypocrea by 

 early writers and to Hypocrella by more recent ones. In fact 

 there seems to be little more reason for describing the perfect 

 stage of this fungus under the name of Aschersonia than for de- 

 scribing a Cordyceps under the name of Isaria, although the Isaria 

 stage is usually mentioned when it is known. That the connection 

 between Aschersonia and Hypocrella has been observed and noted 

 in literature will be pointed out later on. 



The attention of the writer was first called to this matter several 

 years ago while attempting to determine a collection of tropical 

 fungi. One specimen collected by A. A. Heller in Porto Rico in 

 1900 was found to have linear spores and was labeled Hypocrella 

 sp. and filed away under the new and noteworthy species of 

 Hypocreales, since it had been overlooked in the work on the 

 Hypocreales of North America. The same species was collected 

 by Dr. B. Fink in Porto Rico in 191 5 and doubtfully referred to 

 Hypocrella filicina Rehm, although the stroma is white instead of 



1 Bot. Gaz. 57: 308-313. 1914. 



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