Oct., 1887.] 
NORTH AMERICAN XYLARIA AND PORONIA. 
Ill 
oblong-fusoid, brown, rather obtuse, slightly curved, 12—14 x 4 /-*. The 
matrix is invested with a slimy membrane, from which the stipes arise 
and to which their appressed bases are often attached for the distance of 
an inch or more before beginning their free serial growth. The thickness 
of the stroma at the base is 2—3 millim., gradually tapering to the apex 
except where thickened by the investing layer of perithecia. First found 
by Dr. Torrey on decaying timbers in the mines in northern New Jersey, 
and afterwards by Schwein.tz, growing from the decaying wood of an old 
cistern at Bethlehem, Pa. The specimens distributed in N. A. F., 771, 
were found by Mr. Eugene A. Ran, near the Schweinitzian locality, on 
an old wooden pump standing in a limestone spring. 
27. Xylaria acuta, Pk. 25th Rep. N. Y. State Mus., p. 101. 
“Plant gregarious or subcsespitose, 1—li in. high; club cylindrical or 
subfusiform, generally with a sterile, acute apex, blackish-brown, cen¬ 
tral substance white, with a radiating structure, stem involved in a dense, 
purplish, mucedinous tomentum, which causes it to appear bulbous; 
perithecia globose, black ; spores uniseriate, elliptical, sometimes slightly 
curved, colored, .0006—0007 in. long (15—17 /■*). On mossy, decaying logs in 
woods. Greig. September. This species is related to X. digitata, from 
which it differs in its less csespitose habit and in the character of the 
stem and central substance. According to Fries, X. digitata has a sim¬ 
ple, central pith ; in this species, the central pith is radiating, as in X. 
polymorpha .” 
c. Capitulum subglobose. 
28. Xylaria pedunculata (Dicks.) Fr. Summ. Veg. Scand., p. 
382; Nitscli. Pyr. Germ., p. 6; SpJueria pedunculata, Dicks., Crypt. Brit., 
IV, p. 27. 
Stroma rather stout, flexuous, dark brown, simple or more rarely 
sparingly branched, cinereous at first; fertile club thickened, subglobose, 
roughened by the prominent perithecia, apex acute and sterile; asci 
cylindrical, briefly pedicellate, 8-spored; sporidia broadly ovate, very 
obtuse, straight, obliquely uniseriate, dark brown, becoming nearly black, 
surrounded by a thick, mucose, hyaline coat, 40 x 20 y. The habit given 
in Sylloge is on wet ground where manure has lain, in France, Britain 
and Missouri. The specimens in Plowright’s Sphseriacei Britanici, 216 
(the only ones we have seen), have the stroma simple, about five millim. 
high and one millim. thick at the base, attenuated slightly above to the 
conico-globose head, which is about H millim. high, with a short, mucro- 
nate, sterile tip and about H millim. broad; asci (spore-bearing part) 
114—125 x 18 P \ sporidia almond-shaped, subhyaline at first, becoming 
opaque, 18—20 x 15 A 4 , surrounded at first by a hyaline coat. Plowright’s' 
specimens are on rabbit’s dung. It will be noticed that the sporidia are 
exactly like those of a Sordaria. The difference between the measure¬ 
ments of the sporidia given in Sylloge (40 x 20 P) and ours is remarkable. 
This discrepancy does not seem to be due to the shrinking of the sporidia, 
which were apparently in their normal state, nor have we ever observed 
that the sporidia of any of the ascigerous fungi lose much or any of 
their original size in said specimens. 
