News, Notes, and Reviews 
179 
creaceae having free perithecia, or with the latter partly cov- 
ered by the stroma. In many of the Hypocreaceae, 
contrary to his statement, including the genus Hypocrea itself 
and related genera, the perithecia are entirely immersed, in fact 
are scarcely more than cavities hollowed out of the stroma. In 
no genus in the whole order is any character more constant and 
reliable than the stroma in Hypocrea, Chromocrea, Chromocre- 
opsis, Podostroma and other related genera. Even in such cases 
as Cordyceps, in which it might appear extreme to one whose 
knowledge of the genus is limited to one or two species, the 
stroma is sometimes quite variable. In at least one case, Cordy- 
ceps Cockerellii, the stroma becomes so changeable and unreliable 
that it is on the border line between Cordyceps and 0 phionectria. 
But, as a whole, the genus Cordyceps is well defined. If there 
were no intermediate forms, classification would be no problem. 
Again, referring to Maire’s work on Nectriopsis, he writes, 
“ In pure culture [Hyponiyces],h.o\\it\tr, I find apiculi or sharply 
pointed ends only on young ascospores, with more or less obtuse 
ends in maturity.” The species on which this observation was 
made is not named. The genus Hypomyces was founded by 
Tulasne (not Plowright) on Sphaeria Lactifluorum. This species 
has been studied by the writer from living material both in the 
laboratory and field over long stretches of time, involving literally 
bushels of material and in no case have my observations on the 
ascospores borne out those of Wollenweber, which leads me to 
suspect that the peculiar condition observed in his work was due 
to abnormal conditions or possibly that he did not have a Hypo- 
myces at all. 
On this latter observation, which is so lacking in detail that it 
is not conclusive, he rules that the morphology of the ascbspore 
is not a reliable character on which to separate Hypomyces and 
Nectria. On even more limited observation he adopts a new 
character, “ true chlamydospores,” in which, to use his own 
words, “ we have an excellent differential character between both 
genera.” What reason he has to assume that chlamydospores 
occur throughout the genus Hypomyces and not throughout the 
genus Nectria, since they have been reported in some species of 
both genera, he does not make clear. If they should later be 
