News and Notes 



203 



tubers, producing sunken, dark spots 5-30 mm. in diameter. — A 

 stem-rot of beans due to Rhizoctonia has been observed near 

 Oneida, N. Y. 



The Genus Sphaerosoma. — Prof. W. A. Setchell, of the Uni- 

 versity of CaHfornia, has recently pubhshed a paper on The 

 Genus Sphaerosoma" (Univ. of CaHf. Pub. 4: 107-120, pi. 15). 

 This paper is the outgrowth of the study of specimens of a new 

 fungus collected in California which at first seemed to belong to 

 the genus Sphaerosoma. The following is a brief synopsis of his 

 conclusions : 



The genus Sphaerosoma was founded by Klotzsch in 1839, 

 Sphaerosoma fuscescens, an echinulate-hyaline-spored species be- 

 ing the type of the genus. A second species, Sphaerosoma ostio- 

 latum, was described by Tulasne in 185 1. This species is char- 

 acterized by the brown-bluntly-tuberculate ascospores. In 1854, 

 Zobel in the sixth volume of Corda's Icones Fungorum estab- 

 lished a new genus, Sphaer ozone, for Sphaerosoma ostio latum 

 Tub, which was described under the name Sphaerozone Tulasnei 

 Zobel. In 1885, Hesse described a third species, Sphaerosoma 

 fragile. In 1903, Hennings described, under the name Ruh- 

 landiella herolinensis, a fungus which he considered close to 

 Sphaerosoma, with reticulate-verrucose spores. In 1905, Seaver 

 described a fourth species of Sphaerosoma under the name of 

 Sphaerosoma echinulatum. In 1905, Rehm distributed (Ascom. 

 1601) specimens from upper Silesia under the name of Sphaero- 

 soma echinulatum Seaver. In 1908, Rouppert described a fourth 

 species of Sphaerosoma under the name of Sphaerosoma 

 Janczewskianum, and in 1909 published a monograph of the genus 

 Sphaerosoma in which he recognized four species as belonging to 

 the genus Sphaerosoma, one of which has reticulate spores, one 

 verrucose spores, and two echinulate spores. 



Setchell believes that the genus Sphaerosoma should be re- 

 stricted to the echinulate-spored species, Sphaerosoma fuscescens 

 Klotzsch (the type of the genus) and Sphaerosoma echinulatum 

 Seaver, and that, since the European form of Sphaerosoma 

 echinulatum differs from the American in having shorter and 

 more slender spore-spines, it may come to be regarded as a 



