NEW OR RARE MICROFUNGI.

By A. Lorrain Smith, F.L.S. PHYCOMYCETES.

Plasmopara #usiZZa Schrot., in Krypt, F1. Schles. III., p. 237. Forming short, thick, white tufts. Conidiophores numerous,

emerging in groups from the stomata, 60-13op high, non-septate below, sparsely branched above, indistinctly forked, more rarely three-branched, the apices simple or divided, the terminal branchlets awl-shaped, stiff and straight ; conidia variable in form and size, globose-ellipsoid, or ovoid, usually with a more or less distinct papilla, colourless, 21-40p x 2+25p, germinating with zoospores. Oospores globose with a thin yellow-brown membrane, up to 40p in diameter. Germination unknown.

On Geranium. Collected by Mr. D. A. Boyd on Geranium praiense at Borthwick, Midlothian, October, 1910.

Hdotium rubescens Rehrn. in Rabenhorst's Krypt. F1. i. 3, P- 77 5 (1 896).

Apothecia congregate, roundish at hst , then cup shaped or flattened, margin at first entire, becoming flexuose, bent and crenate, disc scarlet-red ; externally yellowish-red and some- what rough, stalk short and thick, 1-5 mm. high, 2'5 mm. wide, Asci elongate, clavate, rounded above, about 100-1 ~ o p long ; spores 8 in the ascus, elongate, slightly tapering at the ends, simple, colo~less, 8p x 3p, 2-seriate above, I-senate below ; paraphyses slender, scarcely thickened upwards, colourless.

A very yellow form of this fungus was collected by Mr. J. Menzies on Ash and Hazel stumps at Quarry Mill, Perth, March, 1910. One only of the apothecia had a reddish tinge.

Sphaerospora ireckispora Sacc. var. paladzcola Boud. Icones Mycologicae II., pl. 376, n. 225 of text.

J. A. Wheldon, in Lancashire Naturalist 111. (I~IO), p. 83. Boudier states that :-I' This variety does not appear to me to differ from the type except by its slightly larger spores 22-26p, by its somewhat shorter external hairs and by its more moist habitat."

PYRENOMYCETES. Gloniopsis decipiens de Not. Piren. Isterini in Giorn. Bot.

Ital. ii. p. 12 (1847). Apothecia congregate, carbonaceous, black, superficial, elon-

gate-linear, often slightly bent, blunt at the ends, simple, not furrowed, with a narrow disc, about 1-2 mm. long, 3 mm. wide ; asci clavate, thick walled, go- IOO~ long, I 8-2 ~p thick, 8-spored ; spores ellipsoid, colourless, up to 8-septate, with 2-3 longitudinal septa, 21-30p x 9-12p; paraphyses .branched above, forming a thick brown epithecium.

On Oak palings, Llanfaes, Brecon. The specimen of this fungus preserved in the herbarium of

the British Museum is very old, and was collected by Rev. Hugh Davies (1739-1821). He found it by the road-side on a gate made of the wood of some deciduous tree, presumably oak, and labelled it Hyslerium sp.

MycospkaereCla citmllina Grossenb. N.Y. Agric. Expt. Stat. Techn. Bull. n. g (1909); Kew Bulletin, 1909, p. 293.

Perithecia depressed-globose, rough, dark-coloured, mouth papillate, becoming almost superficial, I m- I 65p d i a n ; asci cylindrical-clavate, 8-spored; spores colourless, oblong, fusi- form, I-septate more or less 'constricted, the upper cell often largest.

Ascochyta sp.-Pycnidia depressed-globose, wall thin, paren- chymatous, pale brown, mouth minute, distinct, go-160p diam., produced under the epidermis, then bursting through, spores colourless, cylindrical, becoming I-septate and slightly con- stricted, 9- 16p x 4-6p. Pycnidial stage.

Both forms on Tomato plants, Waltham Cross, and on Cucumber plants, Gloucestershire.

SPHAEROPSIDEAE.

Dendrophoma podetiicola Keissl. in Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. LX. p. 57 (1910). Lickenosticta podetiicola Zopf, Unters, paras. Pilze d. Flecht. in Nova Acta Leop.-Carol Akad. Naturf. LXX, p. 263, figs. 22-25 (I 898). MicrotkJia alcicornaria Lindsay in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. XXII., p. 161, t. 8, fig 3 (1859) (descript. sine nomine) and in Journ. Microsc. Sci. IX., p. 349 (18%) (nomen sine descript.).

Perithecia semi-immersed, black, or brownish-black, about I 5op in diameter ; spores small, colourless, kidney-shaped, usually with two small guttulae, about 6-8p x gp; sporophores branched. Parasitic on the podetia and squamules of Cladoniae.

Placed by Keissler in a recent paper in Dendrophoma on account of the branched sporophores. He has associated Lindsay's plants with the above species. I have been unable to verify this.

Diplodina lickenoides A. L. Sm. Pycnidia crowded, hemispherical or subtonical, superficial or

the base slightly immersed, black, shining. Sporophores very short, simple, bearing the spores at the tips; spores oblong- ellipsoid, 2-celled, colourless, small, about I O ~ x 3 p

On the bark of Walnut trees, @rasitic on a Lichen thallus. Collected a t Waterhouse Farm, Writtle, Essex, in 1849, by H. Piggot, and preserved in his Lichen Herbarium.

Sirotkecium Karst. in Meddel. Soc. Faun. and F1. Fenn. XIV. p. 105 (1887).

Perithecia erumpent becoming superficial, almost globose or somewhat elongate, carbonaceous-cartilaginous, smooth, black, opening irregularly ; spores in small chains, simple, brownish, fasciculate on one-celled sporophores.

A genus of Sphaeropsideae with few representatives. It is distinguished by the chains of brown spores.

Sirotkecium lichenicolum Keissl. in Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. LX. p. 56 (1910). Torula lickenicola Lindsay Observ. new Lich. Micro-Fungi in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. XXV. ( I 869) pp. 5 I 5 and 5 30 t. 24, figs. I - I 8.

Perithecia globose, black, immersed then erumpent ; spores greyish-green or olive-brown, oblong, usually with two small guttulae, about 6-8p x 3-4p.

Parasitic on the Apothecia of Lecanora rugosa subsp. cklurona. Lindsay gives other lichens as host-p1ants-L. subfusca, and L. albella (thallus as well as apothecia) and describes it as asso- ciated with Lecanora candelaria, Enterographa cras.m, Physciu pulverulenta, &c., but Keissler considers that Lindsay'is dealing with a composite species.

HYPHOMYCETES.

RamuCaria Winteri Thiim in Hedwigia XX. (1881)~ p. 57. Definite spots wanting, but brownish patches present on the

leaves. Tufts developed on the under surface, slender, loose, white and powdery. Conidiophores emerging from the stomata, upright, septate, slightly widening upwards, about 30p long, 2 - 3 ~ thick ; conidia ellipsoid-cylindrical, rounded at the ends, often somewhat clavate, straight or slightly bent, septate in the middle and slightly constricted, sometimes 4-celled, colourless, 17-33P x 3-7'5F

Recorded on several species of Ononis in Austria, Germany and Denmark. Collected by Mr. D. A. Boyd on 0 n o . n ~ ~ amensis at Saltcoats, Ayrshire, October, 1910.

Acremonium spicatzrm Bon. Hanb. Allgem. Myk, p. 91, fig. 104 (I~sI).

Hyphae creeping, sparingly septate. Conidia borne on short lateral branches arising singly from the hyphae or grouped near the apex of a filament, globose, often with a distinct outer wall, colourless, 10- I 2p in diameter.

The whole fructification recalls that of a colourless Sepedonium but the conidia are smooth and smaller than those of that genus.

Found and determined by J. W. H. Johnson in cultures of sewage Fungi, Ilkley, York., April, I 910.

Botrytis argilacea Cooke in Grevillea III., p. 183, 1875, A very fine specimen has been sent for identification both last

year and this by Rev. W. L. W. Eyre. It was growing on a stump and formed a compact clay-coloured felt. The conidiophores are exceptionally well-developed, and at the tips they are rather swollen, irregular and jagged where the conidia are inserted. The conidia mostly ellipsoid vary to almost globose.

On stumps of a tree, Swarraton, Alresford, Hants, January, 191 I.