Rhoads : Daldinia vernicosa 



283 



centrica, and sometimes exceedingly difficult to secure mature 

 specimens of D. vernicosa that are free from insects. Even after 

 excellent specimens are collected, the interior portions of the 

 stroma usually are eaten out by the larvae that hatch out within 

 the specimens, unless they are quickly oven-dried. 



In addition to his own collections the writer has examined spec- 

 imens of both plants in the herbaria of Dr. L. O. Overholts, The 

 Pennsylvania State College, The New York State College of For- 

 estry, Office of Pathological Collections in the U. S. Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, the Schweinitzian herbarium in the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, and the collections of the Office 

 of Investigations in Forest Pathology. The Schweinitzian her- 

 barium contains the type specimens of Daldinia vernicosa, which 

 were first described as Sphaeria vernicosa by Schweinitz from 

 specimens collected at Salem, North Carolina. 



Summary 



1. Daldinia vernicosa, as is typical of certain other fungi, oc- 

 curs prevailingly on a substratum of burnt wood, and is to be re- 

 garded as a pyroxylophilous fungus. 



2. In its occurrence, it apparently is confined to dicotyledonous 

 species and attacks fire-killed saplings, particularly those of hick- 

 ory, with great vigor. 



3. Out of a total of 363 dicotyledonous trees occurring upon 

 an average sample tract (100 by 500 feet) of a burned area, 46, or 

 13 per cent., bore sporophores of Daldinia vernicosa within 1 

 year and 3 months after the trees were scorched by fire. 



4. Of the 24 (mostly tropical) species of Daldinia given in Sac- 

 cardo, most of them can be considered as mere growth forms or 

 ecological expressions of Daldinia concentrica, a widely distributed 

 plant of cosmopolitan occurrence. 



5. Only two species of Daldinia occur in the United States, D. 

 concentrica and D. vernicosa, which appear to be morphologically 

 quite distinct. 



6. The dehiscence of the colorless exospore wall occurs along 

 a single central peripheral line and seems to be a characteristic 

 feature of regular occurrence with the spores of both Daldinia 



