Seaver: North American Hypocreales 177 



species reported, while clearly belonging to the same genus, are 

 specifically very different. The fact that this species occurs on 

 the living stems of the host and is apparently connected with a 

 group of fungi which is of some economic importance prompted 

 an investigation of its life history. 



^ Culture Experiments 



Drop cultures were made of the conidia and ascospores and 

 both were found to be in a germinating condition. The asco- 

 spores produce usually two germ-tubes, which in twenty-four 

 hours attain considerable length. 



The host of the parasite was undetermined, and a small piece 

 of the leaf was the only clue which we had as to its identity. In 

 order to select a suitable host on which to cultivate the fungus, a 

 visit was made to the palm house of the conservatories of the 

 New York Botanical Garden with the hope or finding a plant 

 similar to the fragment brought from Mexico. The leaves of 

 f plants of the genus Chamaedorea resemble the Mexican specimen, 

 and a species of this genus was selected {Chamaedorea Sartorii) 

 which was known to occur in Mexico. Unfortunately, the plants 

 of this genus were not sufficiently abundant in the conservatories 

 to permit of a living plant being used for inoculation, so a leaf 

 was removed and the petiole used in our preliminary experiments. 



The petiole was cut into pieces 2-3 inches in length. One of 

 these was split and the inoculations made the full length of the 

 split surface with the conidia from the original collection. The 

 other speicmens were inoculated on the cut ends only. All were 

 placed in test tubes with the lower ends immersed in distilled 

 water. In about ten days, the split stems showed an abundant 

 infection, the conidia being more or less effused and nearly cover- 

 ing the whole of the cut surface. The stromata later appeared 

 on the opposite side of the stem, being at first scattered but later 

 becoming more or less confluent. The color, as in the original 

 specimen, was at first white, becoming pink with age. The 

 plants were identical both in gross appearance and microscopic 

 characters with the specimens from which the inoculations were 

 made. 



The specimens which were inoculated on the cut ends only took 



