Morphological Studies in the Chaetomiaceae. I

The cultures of Lophotrichus antmpullus Benjamin and L. martinii Benjamin employed in this study were subcultures of the material upon which Benjamin based his descriptions. Material to be sectioned was cultured, killed and fixed, and stained by the same procedures outlined in an earlier paper on Chaetomium (Whiteside, 1961). Under the procedures followed, the Gram stain usually proved to be more satisfactory than Heidenhain's hematoxylin for staining sectioned material of this genus. For the observation of ascocarp initials, as well as for the study of the contents of crushed perithecia, a dilute aqueous phloxine solution was used. The nuclei of the ascogenous cells stained readily with the phloxine but only with difficulty when treated with the carmine stains.