THE NOMENCLATURE AND MORPHOLOGY OF GLOIOSPHAERA CLERCIANA

An unusual species of the Hyphomycetes was collected by the junior author on May 26, 1970. It was found on decorticated conifer wood in the Uinta Mountains of northern Utah. The fungus has been identified as Gloiosphaera clerciana (Boud.) v. Hohn., a species whose nomenclature has been the subject of much controversy. Since the fungus itself has not been seen by many of the authors who have commented on it, we have reproduced some of the earlier illustrations of the species which are pertinent to discussions of it. From material collected in France, Boudier (1901) described Scopularia clerciana as the second species in the genus Scopularia Preuss. Although he recognized that his species was different from Scopularia venusta he was reluctant to establish a new genus to accommodate it: "Les rapports sont trop grands pour separer mon espece de ce genre dont on ne connaissait encore qu'une seule espece, le Scop. venusta Preuss, . . ." A copy of Preuss' illustration of Scopularia venusta (FIG. 1) shows the apically segmented area and explains Boudier's placement of his species, S. clerciana (FIG. 2) in the genus Scopularia. 415