- 81 
This fungus lias thus far been found occurring spontaneously on 
\onocrepidius and Na u pact us xanthographus , Blissus leucopter- 
, Copipanolis vernalis, Disonycha pennsylvanica, Parandra 
unnea, Lachnosterna in versa and Lachnosterna hirticula, Faria 
\nella, Diabrotica vittata, a small, flat myriapod (Polydesmus), 
d doubtless many other insects not separately reported. 
Culture and infection experiments— Several attempts made in 
e fall of 1888 to cultivate the Sporotrichum in beef broth by 
opping infected chinch bugs into the tube resulted only in the 
ovvth of a mixed mycelium, (partly Mucor), in which nothing 
kembling the fruiting bodies of Sporotrichum appeared. These 
Iperiments must therefore be regarded as failures. 
My attention was next called to the artificial culture of this 
ngus by the receipt, May 15, 1891, from Mr. Roland Thaxter, 
a tube of agar containing an abundant growth of it, derived 
iginally from larvae of Copipanolis vernalis , which he was rear- 
g in a breeding cage. From this culture, which was fruiting 
mndantly when received, agar cultures were repeatedly grown 
re, and from these were also begun various successful cultures 
other media. These were all made in test tubes by the usual 
ocesses of sterile bacterial cultures, the nutrient material being 
ef broth prepared as for the culture of bacteria and used to 
turate corn meal, middlings, bran, and sawdust. In all these 
periments, each two or three times repeated, the Sporotrichum 
ores germinated freely and promptly, the visible growth be¬ 
aring in about thirty-six hours and increasing rapidly at the 
dinary temperature. It was, however, much more profuse in 
e corn-meal mixture than in any of the others, next in the 
ddlings, and slowest in the saturated sawdust. The heads of 
ores began to appear within two or three days, and the 
age of ripening—indicated by the ready detachment of the 
ores on jarring or shaking—was reached in from nine to twelve 
<ys from the beginning of the experiment. The growth was 
'Oil the surface of all these masses, and nowhere penetrated 
e interior except where the medium was loosely compacted so 
at air spaces occurred within it. As examples of the process 
development the notes of the two following cultures mav be 
v r en: 
;ater diameter than the sterile filaments. Sometimes the heads of spores appear to 
lere directly to the side of a mycelium thread, but this is evidently on account of the 
>rtness of the fertile branches, which may not be much longer than wide before seg- 
ntation begins. 
Through the processes of constriction and segmentation, combined with repeated 
nchmg, a dense cluster of basidial cells is produced. From the apex of each of these 
s there arises a single stylus or conidiophore which when about 2 micros long produces 
j.terminal spherical conidium 2-2.5 micros in diameter. As this matures the conidiophore 
-in elongates as much as before and again produces a terminal conidium,—and this mav 
repeated five or more times, ultimately forming a minutely zigzag rachis bearing what 
v appear to be alternate, lateral, sessile spores. As arranged for examination in liquids 
se conidia. except perhaps the terminal one, usually separate from their attaehment, 
ying only the radiating basal cells and their conspicuous zigzag conidiophores. How- 
r, m young specimens it is very common to find basidia with an apical, slender projec- 
1 terminated by a partially developed conidium. 
The globular or somewhat depressed heads measure 25—40 micros in diameter. 
The conidia are spheroidal, colorless, smooth, without septa. 
—6 
