THE NORTH AMERICAN MUCORALES— I 



Family Mucoraceae 

 David Ross Sumstine 



Introduction 



The Mucoraceae have attracted the attention of botanists for 

 more than two hundred years and from the number of papers 

 and theses pubhshed on the subject in Europe recently the 

 interest remains unabated. 



The American species have never been studied systematically, 

 although local and state lists of fungi contain the names of the 

 more common species. Pound* describes the American genera 

 and enumerates a few species. The splendid work of Blakesleef 

 deals entirely with zygospore formation. 



The synonymy is exceedingly complicated and the status of 

 many described species cannot be definitely determined. Lend- 

 nerj reports seventeen imperfectly described species in the genus 

 Mticor appearing from 1884 to 1906. The rule of priority has 

 frequently been ignored and the same name has been used for 

 different species. Fischer§ has unraveled the intricate synonymy 

 of the European species. 



Dried specimens soon lose their taxonomic characters, and 

 therefore herbarium material, even when available, is seldom 

 satisfactory for the exact determination of the specimens. The 

 viability of the spores is lost in three to ten months and conse- 

 quently cultures cannot be made from old material in order to 

 establish the true identity of the specimens. 



While this paper is intended primarily to enumerate only species 

 seen and examined by the writer, yet, for the purpose of giving a 

 better survey of the American species, a few have been admitted 

 on the authority cited under Species Reported. 



* Minn. Bot. Studies i : 87-104. 1894. 

 t Proc. Am. Acad. 40: 205-319. 1904. 

 t Les Mucorinees de la Suisse 100. 1908. 

 § Rabenh. Krypt. Fl. 1892. 



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