Order Elvllacei Sub-order Sphaeriacei 

Xylaria polymorpha Grev. 

Name—many shaped Xylaria 

Species Characters. X. polymorpha. “Sub-carnose, gregarious, turgid irregular, dirty white, then black or dark brown, receptacle bearing perithecia in every part; conidia broadly obovate; sporidia uniseriate, dark brown slightly curved. Sporidia 0.0008–0.0009. inch. Found growing on an old stump in Druid Hill Park. July 1879. The perithecia are immersed in the surface and are easily visible to the naked eye when a thin slice is shaved off. The spores are at first in asci as in all the Ascomycetes. The young plants have a white dusty look upon the surface caused by the conidia. In some species of fungi, the conidia are known to possess the power of germination & reproduction of the plant just as the later spores. This plate should have in due order been placed before Hypomyces banningii, but no vacancies were left.