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Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
Xylaria sp.*. The fungus could not actually be traced in contact with the 
roots, and at the time it was thought that the fungus grew primarily in 
the rich kraal manure with which the plants had been treated and caused 
the death of the plants by smothering the root system. 
Though the Xylarias are quite conspicuous objects on the substrata on 
which they grow, but little is known of the South African species. Four 
species have thus far been collected by the writer around Durban, and of these 
three have not been previously recorded from South Africa. We give the 
undermentioned key of the species occurring around Durban and follow it 
with brief descriptions of each species. 
Key to Xylaria spp. occurring around Durhan. 
1. Plants growing only on fallen and decaying- fruits . . . 1. X. multiplex. 
1. Plants not of above habitat. 
2. Surface of clubs with fine raised lines and apex usually pro- 
longed into a distinct apiculum 2. X. apiculata. 
2, Surface of chibs not as above and apex not prolonged into an 
apiculum. 
3. Surface of clubs moriforin through protruding perithecia. 
3. X. anisopleura. 
3. Surface rugulose. 
4. Spores 20-30 x 7-11 4. X. polymorpha. 
Descriptions of the Species. 
1. Xylaria multiplex (Kze.) Fries. (Figs. 1 and 2.) 
Plants growing on various fruits, solid, black without, white within ; 
clubs slender, cylindrical to compressed, subdivided ; surface strongly 
moriform with the protruding perithecia and especially so the slender 
branches ; stalk densely villous with dark hairs ; perithecia globose ; asci 
cylindrical, 8-spored ; spores brown to dark, ovoid, straight to slightly 
fusoid, older uniguttulate, 7-11 x 4 /x. 
Common on fallen fruits of Strychnos Gerrarcli. This fungus appears 
to always grow on fruits, and Lloyd records it from tropical America as 
particularly growing on large pods of Leguminoseae. Its habitat should aid 
in recognition. My collection is the first record of the plant from South 
Africa. 
2. Xylaria apiculata, Cke. (Fig. 3.) 
Plants epixylous, solid, black without, white within ; clubs cylindrical, 
5-1-5 cm. long x 2 mm. across, single or 2-4 on the same stalk, usually 
with a prominent apical apiculum ; surface striate with fine raised lines ; stalks 
* van der Bijl, P. A., " The Nature of Fungi, with Eeference to the Life-histories 
of some Important Parasites," ' Agric. Journ. Union S. Africa/ vi, p. 904, 1913. 
