E-text prepared by Victoria Woosley, La Monte H. P. Yarroll,
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The receipt of a nice specimen of Camillea Cyclops from Rev. Torrend,Brazil, has induced us to work over the similar species in ourcollection. On our last visit to Europe we photographed the variousspecimens we found in the museums, but did not study them as tostructure. However, they make such characteristic photographs that webelieve the known species can be determined from our figures.
We are all familiar with the common Hypoxylons that form little globose,black balls, usually on dead limbs, in our own woods. They have a solidcarbonous interior with the perithecia imbedded near the surface. Therehave been over two hundred alleged Hypoxylons, mostly from the tropics.We have never worked them over, but suspect that a number of them fromthe tropics, when examined, will be found to be Camilleas. If thespecimens were examined, no doubt "prior" specific names would be foundfor several of this list.1
In the old days all similar carbonous fungi were called Sphaeria.Montagne first received a section of Sphaeria with cylindrical form,from South America. The perithecia were long, cylindrical, and werearranged in a circle or were contiguous, near the summit of the stroma.He proposed to call it Bacillaria, as a section of Sphaeria, but thename being preoccupied, he, at the suggestion of Fries, afterwards namedit in honor of himself, Camillea, Montagne's first name being Camille.
The original species were separated into a genus by Montagne in 1855,and five species listed, and it is a curious fact that these fivespecies, as well as all others that have since been added, are of theAmerican tropics. I have not worked over the "Hypoxylons" in themuseums, but as far as the records go the genus Camillea does not occurin other tropical countries.
In 1845 Léveillé announced that he had discovered a plant resembling anHypoxylon which had, however, the spores borne on filaments(acrogenous), and not in perithecia. He called it Phylacia globosa, andclassified it in Sphaerioidaea. The specimen (Fig. 847) is still atParis. Saccardo has omitted it, and states that Phylacia is probably apycnidial condition of Hypoxylon turbinatum. Both were guesses, onestatement surely, and both probably, wrong. The interior is filled witha powder that under the microscope appears to be made up of ligneousfilaments mixed with a few spores. These filaments appear to me to bethe disintegrated walls of the perithecia, and not the "filaments thatbear the spores." From analogy, at any rate, the spores of all thesesimilar species are probably borne in asci w