352 LON A. HAWKINS AND NEIL E. STEVENS 
dicating the presence of pigments A and C contains only forms having 
oblong fusiform to oblong ellipsoid ascospores, and with somewhat 
similar stromatic characters. The members differ widely, however, in 
host and geographic relations, E. longirostris being a tropical form 
known at present only from Porto Rico and French Guiana. E. 
parasitica and E. fluens misissippiensis occur on the same hosts, 
Castanea sp. and Quercus sp., but E. parasitica is the destructive 
chestnut blight organism known already from China, Japan, and the 
United States, while E. fluens mississippiensis is a weak saprophyte 
which has been found in only four localities in the United States. 
The group characterized by a spectral transmission curve indicating 
the presence of all three pigments contains species widely different, in 
morphology and distribution. E. gyrosa and E. singularis have 
cylindrical ascospores and are found only in the United States, E. sin- 
gularis only on the chaparral forming species of Quercus in Colorado 
and New Mexico. E. gyrosa is found on species of Quercus, Fagus, 
Castanea, and Liquidambar, and is widely distributed in this country, 
though abundant only in the southeastern portion. E. fluens, on the 
other hand, is a cosmopolitan species found in the United States on 
Castanea and on Quercus in Europe and Asia on a variety of hosts. 
In their stromatic characters also these species are widely different. 
The stromata of E. singularis are large and irregular, being 3-5 mm. 
wide by 2-4 mm. high, and disintegrate into a powdery mass when the 
wall is ruptured. The stromata of E. fluens are much smaller, being 
only .75-3 mm. in diameter by .5 to 2.5 mm. high and very compact. 
On the other hand, the two most closely related fungi of the genus, 
E. fluens and E. fluens mississippiensis , fall in different color groups. 
In fact, it may well be that the production of pigment B by E. fluens 
is the chief character which distinguishes it from its variety. The 
varietal name was proposed by Shear and Stevens to designate a form 
which they were unable to separate from E. fluens on morphological 
grounds, but which showed constant differences on culture media. 
The fact that the red pigment in E. fluens is not found in E. para- 
sitica grown on the same media and under the same conditions is of 
especial interest since the two species are so much alike morphologically 
and grow on the same host, yet differ so widely in their relation to their 
hosts, E. parasitica being, as has already been pointed out, the uni- 
formly destructive chestnut blight parasite, while E. fluens is a harm- 
less saprophyte. 
