Summary
1. | Daldinia vernicosa, as is typical of certain other fungi, occurs prevailingly on a substratum of burnt wood, and is to be regarded as a pyroxylophilous fungus. | ||||
2. | In its occurrence, it apparently is confined to dicotyledonous species and attacks fire-killed saplings, particularly those of hickory, with great vigor. | ||||
3. | Out of a total of 363 dicotyledonous trees occurring upon an average sample tract (100 by 500 feet) of a burned area, 46, or 13 per cent., bore sporophores of Daldinia vernicosa within 1 year and 3 months after the trees were scorched by fire. | ||||
4. | Of the 24 (mostly tropical) species of Daldinia given in Saccardo, most of them can be considered as mere growth forms or ecological expressions of Daldinia concentrica, a widely distributed plant of cosmopolitan occurrence. | ||||
5. | Only two species of Daldinia occur in the United States, D. concentrica and D. vernicosa, which appear to be morphologically quite distinct. | ||||
6. | The dehiscence of the colorless exospore wall occurs along a single central peripheral line and seems to be a characteristic feature of regular occurrence with the spores of both Daldinia vernicosa and D. concentrica, when mounted in dilute alkaline solutions. |