250 
Journal of Mycology 
[Vol. 11 
the host, in walls of the rifts. The stromata (fruit bodies) are 
black on the exterior, whitish within, and are somewhat obovate, 
depressed and sessile, from 1-2 mm. broad and about 1 mm. high, 
the surface minutely papillate from the slight but evident eleva¬ 
tions at the opening of the perithecia. In depauperate specimens 
fruit bodies are not well formed. The perithecia are immersed in 
the fruit body, ovate to flask-shaped and 300-400x150-200 jx, the 
wall not very distinct from the stroma but quite evident in stained 
preparations. The asci are quite mature in these specimens, are 
150-200 x 7-8 fx, with a small cap “cell” and tapering at the base. 
The spores are filiform, eight in number and nearly the length of 
the acus, about 1 /x in diameter. The segments are 3-4 fx long. 
I have also received specimens of the same species from Dr. 
R. Thaxter collected on Danthonia spicata at New Haven, Aug. 
1889, an d at Kittery Point, Me., Aug., 1901. I have seen speci¬ 
mens sent to Dr. Peck and collected by J. L. Sheldon on Dan¬ 
thonia spicata in Connecticut, July 17, 1901. 
During 1900 and 1901 Professor W. H. Long collected what 
is probably the same species in Texas on an undetermined grass 
and deposited some of the material in the Herbarium of the 
Botanical Department of Cornell University. This material Mr. 
Long recognized as belonging to the genus Balansia. The fungus 
attacks apparently the very young inflorescence or young leaves 
or both, forming a pseudosclerotium, gray to blackish in color 
outside and white within, about 4 to 10 or 15 mm. long and 2-4 
mm. in diameter, composite in character as in the case of the 
specimens from Ohio. On these are formed the hemispherical 
to subglobose fruiting stromata, black on the outside and whitish 
within, and punctate with the minute slightly projecting ostiola 
of the perithecia. The perithecia are flask-shaped, immersed, 
and 200-270 x 100-120 fx, the wall as in the Ohio specimens not 
very distinct from the stroma but evident in stained preparations. 
The asci are not as mature as in the Ohio specimens, are cylin¬ 
drical with a tapering pedicel, and hyaline cap “cell,” 120-150X 
6-7 ix. The spores are eight in number, nearly the length of the 
ascus and are about 1 jx in diameter. The Texas specimens are 
not so mature as the Ohio specimens, and this probably acounts 
for the fact that the spores examined were not separated into 
segments. This probably also accounts for the smaller size of 
the perithecia and asci. The stromata are not so constricted at 
their point of attachment to the sclerotium as those of the Ohio 
specimens. Otherwise the material from Texas and Ohio agree 
specifically, and the difference noted when the differences in age 
taken into account would not warrant the separation of the two 
into distinct species, unless inoculation experiments and studies 
of development should show them to be specifically distinct. 
In some of the Texas specimens the young sclerotium was 
covered with a fine white powder consisting of short acicular 
