Fitzpatrick, Thomas, Kirby : Ophiobolus 33 



In the endeavor to corroborate Berlese's statements an attempt 

 has been made to obtain from the herbarium of the Royal Botanic 



Fig. i. a, Asci and spores of Ophiobolus eucryphis, from material col- 

 lected by Broome on Iris foetidissima. X 625 ; b, Asci and spores of 

 O. cariceti, from material collected in New York on wheat showing typical 

 symptoms of the take-all disease. X 625. (Camera lucida) 



Gardens at Kew portions of the original collections of these two 

 British specimens. Since both species antedate 0. graminis, the 

 demonstration of the correctness of Berlese's assertion with refer- 

 ence to either would force us to discard the specific name graminis. 



Miss Wakefield has very obligingly mailed to us from Kew 

 material bearing on this nomenclatorial problem, and accompanying 

 the material has written as follows : 



" Sphaeria eucrypta B. & Br. There seems to be no type of 

 this (on Car ex pendula) in existence. We have 5 specimens col- 

 lected by Broome, but all are on Iris foetidissima. I send you a 

 slide of one of these — collected at Batheaston, Jan., 1859. 



"Sphaeria cariceti B. & Br. The type of this in Berkeley's own 

 herbarium (Batheaston, Dec, 1858) does not seem to have any 

 mature perithecia left. I found some in another specimen from 

 Cooke's herbarium collected by Broome. This is labelled in 

 Broome's handwriting 'on Aira caespitosa, Batheaston, Jan., 1850/ 

 but the name ' Sphaeria cariceti B. & Br.' has been added at another 

 time in rather different handwriting, which I doubt being that of 



