University of the State of New York BULLETIN OF THE New York State Museum Frederick J. H. Merrill Director No. 39 Vol. 8 October 1900 LIBRARY" NEW YORK BOTANY GARDEN PALEONTOLOGIC PAPER^ BY "llifl jlllliimrnri _!■'■< FREDERICK B. LOOMIS Ph.D. M 67m- M ro- 1 200 ALBANY UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK I goo Price 15 cents University of the State of New York REGENTS With years ef election 1874 Axsox Judd Upso.v L.H.D. D.D. LL.D. Chancellor, Glens Falls 1892 William Croswell Doaxe D.D. LL.D. Vice-Chancellor, Albany 1873 Martin I. Towxsexd M.A. LL.D. - - Troy 1877 Chauncey M. Depew LL.D. - New York 1877 Charles E. Fitch LL.B. M.A. L.H.D. - Rochester 1877 Orris H. Warren D.D. _____ Syracuse 1878 Whitelaw Reid LL.D. - _ _ _ New York 1881 William H. Watson M.A. M.D. - Utica 1881 Hexry E. Turner _____ Lowville 1883 St Clair McKelway L.H.D. LL.D. D.C.L. - Brooklyn 1885 Hamilton Harris Ph.D. LL.D. - Albany 1885 Daniel Beach Ph.D. LL.D. - Watkins 1888 Carroll E. Smith LL.D. - - - - Syracuse 1890 Pliny T. Sextox LL.D. _____ Palmyra 1890 T. Guilford Smith M.A. LL.D. C.E. - - Buffalo 1893 Lewis A. Stimson B.A. M.D. _ _ _ _ New York 1895 Albert Vander Yeer Ph.D. M.D. _ _ Albany 1895 Charles R. Skinner M.A. LL.D. Superintendent of Public Instruction, ex officio 1897 Chester S. Lord M.A. LL.D. - - Brooklyn 1897 Timothy L. Woodruff M.A. Lieutenant-GoYernor, ex officio 1899 Theodore.Rooseyelt B.A. LL.D. Governor, ex officio 1899 John T. McDonough LL.B. LL.D. Secretary of State, ex officio 1900 Thomas A. Hexdrick. M.A. LL.D. _ _ Rochester SECRETARY Ejected by regents 1900 James Russell Parsons jr M.A. DIRECTORS OF DEPARTMENTS 1SS8 Melvil Dewey M.A. State library and Home education 1890 James Russell Parsons jr M.A. Administrative, College and High school depots 1890 Frederick J. H. Merrill Ph.D. Stale museum LIBRARY NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN SII.URIC FUNGI FROM WESTERN NEW YORK 223 SILURIC Fl Xi;i FROM WESTERN NEW YORK BY Frederic b. LOOMIS (Aniherst Mass.) Plate 16 At about the middle of the Clinton group as it is developed ut Rochester N. Y., occurs a band of heniate containing nuiner- (nis fossils, which give evidence of having been deposited in a moderate depth of water. In thin sections many of these fossils arc found to 1"- more or less perforated by fine tubules entering from their surfaces. The borings are of interest as additional testimony of the presence of plants during Clinton time, a period whin plants were very sparsely represented. 1 The borings, as will be seen from the figures, enter from the surface and are believed to represent plants which grew on the shells and sent only a part of their filaments into the shell. The tubules pene- trate a little way into or occasionally riddle the whole shell. The biuings are uniform in size, there being no tendency to irreg- ular swellings in places where the host material was softer. At the ends of certain tubules are spherical swellings, in most cases of uniform shape and size. These swellings may represent sporangia, though I have no conclusive evidence to that effect. The borings doubtless represent the work of the mycelium of a fungus, probably some member of the Phycomycetes. I regard them as due to fungi rather than to algae for the following reasons: the tubules are quite uniform in size and shape; while those of algae, under the same conditions, are more or less irreg- ular; there is also in these fossils no evidence of septa, in which respect they are more like fungi than algae. The tubules jvj are very small, jjjj to ^^ mm in diameter, which is smaller than ct) is usual for algae, but quite normal for the mycelia of fungi. ^, The spherical inflations at the ends of some filaments are very like sporangia, or other fungous swellings; but not at all like CQ i i j 'Bythotrephis, which is common in the rocks of this age and has Lu. usually been looked on as algous, is regarded by Kothpletz and others as a sponge. 224 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM swellings of algae, which are usually quite irregular in size and shape. Such spherical swellings as I have figured on the ends of vi us hyphae bare been frequently described 1 on hyphae which had penetrated into the wood or leaves of fossil plants. Indeed, the appearance of the large number of filaments, entering from the surface and penetrating a short distance into the calcareous shells, is very like thai produced by the mycelium of a lichen in penetrating a limestone or other rock on which it grows. It is difficult to refer these marine fungi to modern families, as such recent fungi have not been extensively studied except so far as they affect food fish. etc. Tin- mycelia from the Clinton group may he safely called Phycomycetes, and are probably to he placed mar the genus Saprolegnia. Duncan 2 has de- scribed similar borings under tin- name Pal ae a c hly a p er - fo rans. referring them also as '•unicellular algae"' to the family Saprolegniae. 3 These weir obtained from Lower Biluric foraminifera, the Upper Siluric coral. Goniophyllum py r:i in i d a 1 e, the Devonic coral. Calceola s a n d a 1 i n a . ami a Miocene Th am nasi raea. This author did not dis- tinguish species, referring to one species mycelia both coarse ami fine from Siluric to Tertiary. In the material under present con sideration I find three forms distinguishable both by the charac- ter of the mycelium and the spherical swellings. So far as the mycelium is concerned, the Clinton fungi resemble Duncan's P a - 1 a e a c h 1 y a ; but the spherical swellings closely resemble those described by Kolliker 4 , found in both recent and fossil corals and shells, which fungi Kolliker described but left unnamed. They are also very like the Carbonic genus, l'eronospor- i t e s, 5 whose hyphae, however, enter plant tissue and would therefore seem to be either fresh-water or aerial fungi. P e r o n - osporites has just such swellings as the Clinton fungi at the ends of small hyphae. both hyphae and swellings being unmodi- 'Bee Seward. Fossil plants. 1898. p. -17. "Quart jour. geol. soe. Loncl. 1876, i>. '-'or.. At the time Duncan wrote Saprolegniae were considered algae, but are now classed with fungi. •Zeitsch. Wiss. Zool. 1859. 10: 215. So Seward. Fossil plants. 1S98. p. 217. SILURIC FUNGI FROM WESTERN" NEW YORK 225 fied as to shape or size whether in the cell walls or open cell spaces. In spite of the difference of host, for the present I prefer to assign these Clinton fungi to the genus Peronospo rites rather ihan to propose a new generic name on a very inadequate botanical basis. The following three species are based on varia- tions of the mycelium and hyphal swellings. The drawings are made with a camera lucida. Peronosporites ramosus sp. nov. Plate 16, fig. 1-3 This species is characterized by a mycelium about j4 ? mm in diameter, which gives off branches freely. All parts of the mycelium are uniform in size. Some hyphae are swollen at their ends into a globular sac. These sacs vary in size from y- 5 to -.fo mm in diameter, and are globular in form, though they may be more or less ovate or even asymmetrical. Rarely a hypha. after enlarging into a sac, continues farther; though in one case a hypha has expanded into a second sac. These more or less irregular swellings probably do not represent sporangia or resting spores, which would be more regular in size and shape. Peronosporites globosus sp. nov. Plate 16, fig. i The mycelium is sit mm in diameter, enters from the outer surface and branches but very seldom. At the ends of cer- tain short hyphae are spherical swellings about - 3 ^- mm in. diameter, quite uniform in size and shape. Being uniformly on short hyphae, the swellings are near the surface of the host, and may represent sporangia though no spores are present. This is a common species. Peronosporites minutus sp. nov. Plate 16, fig. 5, 6 The mycelium, about j-J^ mm in diameter, entering from the surface, penetrates straight downward into the shell without giving off branches. Frequently on the ends of long hyphae are spherical swellings too mm in diameter. These are very regular, L'L'II NEW YORK STATE MISEt'M and have the smallest swelling belonging to any species, thongli the mycelium has a diameter about the same as the foregoing species. All of the above are found on sectioning the firmer parts of the Clinton hematite layer, which is an aggregation of rolled bits of bryozoa, corals, brachiopod shells and Crustacea, each fragment being coated by concentric layers of hematite, making an oolitic structure. If one accepts the theory that all oolites are formed by concentric coatings precipitated by algae, then these oolites must indicate the presence of other plants in the Clinton sea. This oolitic formation is described by C. H. Smyth jr. 1 who care- fully describes the process of concentric precipitations, but does not assign algae as a cause. This author describes the condi- tions prevailing at the time the hematite layer was deposited as a swampy shore of an inland sea. Such fungi as those above described are common through Mesozoic and Cenozoic time, and have been found at least once before in Silurie beds.- 'Zeitsch. f. Praktische geologie. August IStM. See also Amer. jour. sei. (3) 43, p. 4S7. TCBlliker iloc. cit.) says he found his Palaeachlya in an Upper Silurie C y a t h o p h y 1 1 u m and a Lower Silurie foraminifer from Europe, but he does not figure either. EXPLANATION OF PLATE Peronosporites ramosus sp. two. Fig. 1 A transverse section of a punctate brachiopod shell inhabited by P. r a in o s u s. a=shell punctae. xloO 2 Branch 6 of fig. 1. x625 3 A shell cut parallel to the surface, showing an advanced stage of disintegration caused by P. ramosus Peronosporites globosus sp. nov. 4 An impunctate brachiopod shell inhabited by P. globosus. x250 Peronosporites minutus sp. nov. 5 An impunctate brachiopod shell penetrated on one side only by P. minutus. xl25 I a. a spherical swelling on a hypha. xoOO; b. a hypha. x500 FOSSIL FUNGI. 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