II CHARLES DRECHSLER BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JANUARY has occurred in the family, with A ctinomyces at the head of a transition series developing increasingly well marked fungoid characteristics, or else that A ctinomyces is the probable progenitor of the groups Corynebacterium and Mycobacterium by degenerative reduction. The view that the ray fungus represents an organism with hyphomycetous affinities was advanced early by HARZ (7) and DEBARY (2). These authors regarded as conidia the clavate elements of the actinomycotic lesion, which BOSTROEM'S studies later properly degraded to the rank of degenerative structures. SAUVA-GEAU and RADAIS (20), DOMEC (3), THAXTER (22), GASPERINI (4), and others placed a number of congeneric forms among the Hyphomycetes on account of their production of aerial spores. It may be mentioned in this connection that an examination of a considerable number of species has convinced the writer that this disposition is the only one which is in harmony with the morphological conditions represented in the genus. The material used in these studies, with the exception of authentic cultures of the species described by WAKSMAN and CURTIS (23), and of a number of organisms isolated by H. J. CONN from soil collected near Geneva, New York, was largely obtained from soil collected in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By the use of the dilution method more than iooo plants belonging to the genus were isolated from this source; and of these about 3oo, representing probably more than ioo species, were selected for morphological examination. Approximately 400 additional individuals were derived from soil collected in Porto Rico,
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