Fitzpatrick: Monograph of Coryneliaceae 217 



crease has been carried here to such an extreme that the asci are* 

 typically 3- or 2-spored. Occasionally i-spored asci occur while 

 less commonly asci with more than three spores are found. In 

 C. jamaicensis similar conditions are found in the ascus, the 

 tendency toward a i-spored ascus being carried slightly farther 

 and asci containing more than three spores being rarer than in 

 C. portoricensis. The perithcium in C. jamaicensis has how- 

 ever changed also, the tendency in the ancestral stock for 3- 

 parted perithecia to occur having been intensified here until 2- 

 lobed individuals are no longer found. Moreover there is evi- 

 dent the tendency for occasional 4-lobed or even 5-lobed apices 

 to appear, the change in the perithecium thus being even more 

 pronounced than in C. oreophila, the species which C. jamaicensis 

 most closely resembles externally. A study of the known geo- 

 graphical distribution of these four species is also instructive. 

 The two species in which the 3-spored ascus is typical have been 

 reported only from the West Indies, while the two species with 

 typically 8-spored asci are continental having been found only in 

 South America and Central America. On account of the high 

 specialization both in^ the ascus and in the perithecium, C. 

 jamaicensis is to be regarded as representing the highest point 

 of development in the group. 



Host Relationships 



The writer has attempted to determine whether or not the 

 various species of Corynelia have become restricted to definite 

 species of Podocarpus. The amount of material available for 

 study has, however, been insufficient to warrant definite conclu- 

 sions. Nevertheless the following facts should be recorded. The 

 writer has studied material from twenty-one different species of 

 Podocarpus and in only two cases has a single species been 

 found to serve as a host for more than one species of the Cory- 

 neliaceae. Both Tripospora tripos and Corynelia uberata have 

 been found on Podocarpus elongata, while Corynelia oreophila 

 and C. tropica occur on P. chilina. In both of these cases the 

 fungi are however of relatively distant relationship. Closely 

 related species have not been seen on the same host. Moreover 



