Seaver: The Hypocreales of North America 211 



seems to have been frequently collected but few specimens are 

 available for examination. 



4. Cordyceps acicularis Rav. ; Berk. Jour. Linn. Soc. 1: 158. 



1857 



? Torrubia Melolonthae Tul. Fung Carp. 3:12. 1865. 



? Torrubia superficialis Peck, Ann. Rep. N. Y. State Mus. 28 : 70. 



1857- 



? Cordyceps Melolonthae Sacc. Michelia 1 : 320. 1878. 



Stem simple, elongate, slender, cylindric, often flexuous, 

 brownish, minutely velvety at the base, smooth above, 5-8 cm. 

 high and 1.5 mm. thick; head cylindric, about 1.5 cm. long and 

 3 mm. thick ; perithecia blackish, large, ovoid, subsuperficial ; asci 

 subcylindric, capitate at the apex, with a short pedicel ( below ; 

 spores arranged in a parallel fascicle in the ascus, hyaline, filiform, 

 straight or curved, many-septate, 130X2.5 mic. ; segments 3.5 

 mic. long (pi. 54, /. p). 



On larvae buried in the ground. 



Type locality : South Carolina. 



Distribution: South Carolina (and New York?). 

 Illustrations: Jour. Linn. Soc. 1: pi. 1; Ann. Bot. 9: pi. 2, 

 f. 27, 28. 



Exsiccati : Rav. Fungi Car. 4: 29 (as Cordyceps carolinensis 

 Berk. &Rav.). 



Berkeley says : " This species is closely allied to C. Ravenelii 

 but the habit is very different. I can find no essential difference 

 in the fruit." 



Massee also regards C. Ravenelii as scarcely more than a 

 variety of the present species. 



Mr. Peck (1. c.) states that T. superficialis is " related to and 

 intermediate between T. Ravenelii and T. carolinensis." It is 

 not unlikely that a more extended study will show the three 

 species to be identical. 



5. Cordyceps insignis Cooke & Rav.; Cooke, Grevillea 12: 38. 



1883 



Stromata 4-6 cm. long, purple ; stem 7-8 mm. thick, equal, 

 pallid, sulcate (when dry), very minutely velvety at the base ;head 

 broadly ovoid, 1.5 cm. in length, very slightly roughened by the 



