124 
Journal of Mycology 
[Vol. ll 
narrow border of white if any appears. In a floccose colony loose 
aerial hyphae with or without fruit will spread as fast in the 
rapidly growing period as the vegetative hyphae. Later this 
balance is destroyed in some species so that they appear almost 
as if indeterminate. 
4. Conidiophore. 
The conidiophores are a variable quantity. There is, how¬ 
ever, a general type or series of types in each form which is 
found of value. The length of the conidiophores, their septa- 
tion, the diameter of their cells, and especially their origin and 
relation to the substratum and to each other are sufficiently 
characteristic to be very useful. 
5. Fructification. 
The term fructification may be best made to include the 
chains of conidia and the basidia and branches bearing them 
back to the first branch from the main conidiophore. Such fruc¬ 
tifications are variable and exceedingly troublesome to figure 
satisfactorily. The data which are offered vary with the species, 
but include the mode of branching, the measurements of the 
basidia, the relation of the branches and basidia to each other, 
the collocation of the chains of conidia, and, perhaps the most 
useful of all, measurements of the limits of total length and 
breadth of the whole fructification. In some species the chains 
are widely divergent, in others joined into a column. In some 
all the basidia are in a single verticil, such a fructification may 
be called simple. In others the first branch is divergent giving a 
falsely double effect. A conventionalized diagram of a series of 
fructifications enlarged about 100 diameters and sketched under 
the camera-lucida shows very striking contrasts between differ¬ 
ent species. 
6. Conidia. 
With reference to the conidia there is no departure from the 
usual data,—size, color, presence or absence of a connective, mode 
of germination, markings on surface, tendency to adhere or sepa¬ 
rate freely, rapidity of growth and resistance to destructive agents 
or conditions. 
A long series of cultures indicates that for the genus Peni- 
cillium at least these characters form a practicable basis for de¬ 
scription and it seems reasonable to believe from comparative 
cultures already made that the same plan could have much wider 
application. 
Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station. 
