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P E N IC IL L IUM GLAucuM.
Glaucous Pencil-Mould.
Class and Obder C EY P TO G AM IA F U N G I , im«.—Nat. Ord. B Y S SO W EÆ ,
G«t>.—M U C ED IN E S , Link.
G EN ERIC c h a r a c t e r .
Flood minuti, septaii, simplices aut ramosi, plus minusve coespitosi, ferlilibus er ec-
tis, apice penicillatis. Sporuloe numerosissimoe, ad apices in capitulum con-
Woolly filaments minute, jointed, simple or branched, more or less tufted,
the fertile ones erect, with a pencil-like tuft of branches. Sporules numerous,
crowded at the summits into a little head.
s p e c i f i c c h a r a c t e r .
P énicillium glaucum; dense coespitosum, effusum, capitulis sporularum demum
glands.
P. densely tufted, spreading ; heads of sporules at length glaucous.
P é n i c i l l i u m g l a u c u m . Link, Berl. Mag. 3. 1 7 - t . 1 . f . 2 4 .—Pers. Mycol.
Furop. V. 1 . p . 4 0 .
P é n i c i l l i u m expansum, Nees' Syst. t . 4. f . 59-—Link, loc. cit. p. 1 7 -—Gray's
Nat. Arr. v. 1. p. 554.
H ab. On various putrefying substances, as fungi, fruit, &c. Very common,
at all seasons.
Tufts composed of minute woolly filaments, about ¿th or A th inch
high, rounded or spreading, the whole white at first, at length becoming
glaucous. Plant, like the rest of the genus, composed of two kinds of
filaments interwoven together; barren ones decumbent, and simple to the
apex ; fertile ones erect, and divided at the top into a small tuft of subulate
branches, among which the sporules are profusely disposed, and
form a little head. They are not moniliform, or arranged in a beaded
manner, as in the genus Aspergillus.
When I undertook the illustration of this species, I determined
to spare no labour in examining and comparing the different
authors who have been supposed to describe it, from the
time of M i c h e l i ; hut I found the whole involved in such
inextricable confusion, that I have merely given such authorities
as are unquestionable. Authors in general, seem to have
copied more or less from each other, and, hy far the greater proportion
of synonymes may safely be pronounced not to belong
to our plant. That figured by M i c h e l i , t. 9 1. f. 3., which is