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The development of a suitable medium for the isolation and culture of fungi from sewage and sewage polluted water is described. Carbon/nitrogen ratios of culture media are noted. Water as a storage medium, oxygen requirements of fungi, and spore entrapment are discussed. Isolation of fungi from fresh water, polluted water, potable water, ambient water, and sludges is described and tabulated.

The 1968 Ohio Foray of the Mycological Society of America preceded the annual meeting of the Mycological Society with the American Institute of Biological Sciences at the Ohio State University, Columbus. The Foray took place on Labor Day weekend. On Saturday we went to an oak woodland in which some pine plantations had been developed in south central Ross County 62 miles south of Columbus in Scioto Trails State Forest and State Park (I). The area is hilly, unglaciated, and lies west of the Scioto River. Sunday we visited two hollows, coves, or valleys in the Hocking Hills in Hocking State Forest. This was mixed woodland with hardwoods, hemlock [Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr.] and scrub pine (Pinus virginiana Mill.). In the morning we collected in Crane Hollow (II), after lunch in the picnic area at Conkle's Hollow State Park, and in the afternoon we collected in Long Hollow (III). En route to Crane Hollow we stopped briefly along S. R. 180 about 2 miles west of Enterprise, Hocking Co. (II-A). Here several interesting fungi were found among herbs and willows along a nearby creek. The Hocking Hills are characterized by rugged terrain, the gorges being cut in conglomerate sandstone commonly called Black Hand. The area is unglaciated and the forests on the cliff slopes are relatively undisturbed. Monday's trip was to Camp Lazarus Boy Scout Preserve (IV) in Delaware Co. about 20 miles north of Columbus. Here we collected in a beech-maple forest with small pine plantations on glacial till over Ohio shale along a tributary of the Olentangy River, itself a tributary of the Scioto River. We wish to thank the Ohio State Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks and Recreation, and Division of Forests and Conservation, and the management of Camp Lazarus, for permission to collect in these areas.

Specimens of fungi assignable to the genus Schizophyllum have been collected in all parts of the world where woody plants grow. They have aroused the interest of people from very early times as evidenced by the fact that primitive people in widely scattered areas know S. commune by specific common names and even use it as a food or as a type of "chewing gum." Specimens of Schizophyllum have aroused the interest of collectors ever since fungus fruit bodies have been collected and preserved in herbaria. Because of the similarity of species of Schizophyllum to agarics, especially in the fresh or revived condition, mycologists have classified Schizophyllum in the Agaricaceae (Killermann, 1928; Kauffman, 1918; etc.) or in the Tricholomataceae of the Agaricales (Singer, 1949). There has been some discussion (reviewed by Lohwag, 1941) in which it has been attempted to derive the genus from Skepperia, a stipitate, spathulate, stereaceous fungus usually assigned to the Thelephoraceae (sensu lato), by assuming that a lateral fusion of pilei took place.

(1970). The role of fungi in waste treatment. C R C Critical Reviews in Environmental Control: Vol. 1, No. 1-4, pp. 581-619.

Attention has been called to the existence of this genus of pore fungi in North America by the discovery in 1943, and the subsequent collection between 1943 and 1948 at several locations in Oregon and Washington, of specimens of a most unusual species of "Fomes." In July, 1948, the writer visited the Botany Department at the University of Washington in Seattle and was shown and lent a portion of a large fungus which had been given to D. E. Stuntz. Several specimens collected by A. H. Smith and D. E. Stuntz (FIGS. 8-10) in Mount Rainier National Park intensified the writer's desire to know more about the specimen obtained in Seattle. A lead was available through Charles Gardner Shaw of the Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State College of Pullman, Washington. Through conversations, and later correspondence, with C. R. Allison, he learned of a giant "Fomes" collected in Lewis Co., Wash., which had been placed on display in the office of the Weyerhauser Lumber Co., Longview, Wash. It was discovered that other similar but smaller conks had been sent to L. 0. Overholts by J. L. Bedwell of the Portland Office of the Division of Forest Pathology, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils and Agricultural Engineering, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. It became referred to facetiously by foresters who were acquainted with it as "Fomes fuzzii-sandozii" because of its fuzzy appearance and the fact that the first specimens found in Clackamas Co., Ore., in 1943, were collected by the brothers Ali and Fred Sandoz. In 1946, Jacob Hisey found a large specimen, one of the largest fungus fruit bodies known, in Lewis Co., Wash. It weighed at least 300 lbs. and measured 56 x 37 inches. At least, among

(1939). Some Fungi Imperfecti from the Pacific Northwest. Mycologia: Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 43-52.

SUMMARY Strains of 13 species of fungi isolated in relatively large numbers from sewage sludges, polluted waters, organically enriched soils and similar habitats were incubated under 100% prepurified nitrogen gas in liquid culture with the reductant sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate. Incubation was carried out in 25-ml conical flasks in Case "anaero" jars. Growth and removal of carbon from the medium were measured at weekly intervals by oven dry weight determinations on cell crops collected on membrane filters, and with a Beckman carbon analyzer. Except for Geotrichum candidum, Fusarium oxysporum and F. solani, all strains used demonstrated a definite requirement for vitamins under the anaerobic or microaerophilic conditions of the test. Greatest amount of growth activity was demonstrated by Geotrichum candidum, Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani and Mucor hiemalis. The fungi most sensitive to a 100% nitrogen gas atmosphere were Phoma herbarum, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Candida parapsilosis. Intermediate species included: Aspergillus niger, A. fumigatus, Aureobasidium pullulans, Phialophora jeanselmei, Penicillium oxalicum and P. brevicompactum (used in combination), and Trichoderma viride, in descending order. It was shown that strains of those fungi tested are able to metabolize organic substances and produce cell tissue under the conditions of the experiment and that therefore they may be carrying out similar activities in microaerophilic or even anaerobic conditions in sewage treatment systems and similar habitats. The objectives of this investigation were to study the effects of elemental nitrogen on the survival, growth, and metabolic activity (utilization of carbohydrate) of common fungi associated with polluted waters. For a long time fungi have been considered to be obligate aerobes that require some molecular oxygen for growth, sporulation, germination and essential developmental activities. In spite of the statements that fungi fail to grow at very low or zero oxygen pressures (Matsumoto, 1921; Denny, 1933; Kuhn, 1938; Smith, 1946; Skinner et al., 1947; Preston and McClellan, 1948; and Pine, 1954; among others), quantitative relations of growth and oxygen supply vary considerably among different species and strains and some fungi have a wide range of oxygen tension that gives maximum growth. The optimum amount of oxygen has been shown to vary from species to species, and strains of many species are observed to develop in one or more stages of their life cycle in less than the amount available in air. Literature on the oxygen requirements of

The presence of cells or colonies of yeasts in polluted water, sewage, and sewage-treatment processes may have been anticipated by some workers dealing with the biology of such habitats, but little has been said about them in the literature. Cake yeast has been used in the starting of septic tanks, activated-sludge systems, and sludge digesters, but whether brewer's or baker's yeast was more effective or effective at all is unknown. Heukelekian (1942) set up a series of experiments with cake yeast, using a brand of baker's yeast supplied by Anheuser Busch Co., adding it to sewage in open and closed vessels, and to a ripe sludge mixture. He concluded that "(1) yeast does not hasten the stabilization of sewage under anaerobic conditions," and "(2) yeast does not hasten the digestion of seeded sludge mixtures." In 1953 Heukelekian again reported on an experiment in which baker's yeast was used to determine the effect of this type of biological preparation on the digestion of sewage solids. He concluded that "the addition of . . yeast does not increase the liquefaction of non-sterile fresh solids as measured by the B.O.D. of the supernatant liquor," although during the experiment some gas was formed and solids were reduced to some extent. That no recovery was made of either baker's or brewer's yeast from samples tested for fungi, in the series of isolations on which this report is based, may result from an error in sampling technique, from incomplete sampling due to use of incorrect enrichment medium, or from a habitat not conducive to the survival of these species of Saccharomyces. In screening various polluted habitats for their potential fungus popu

Many species of organisms of a wide biological spectrum are found in water. In bodies of waters with low organic matter content and high dissolved oxygen, the number of species may be high with a large num? ber of aquatic fungi, but the number of individuals may be low. As organic pollutants are added in natural runoff or as a result of community practices, the number of species that can tolerate the changed conditions may increase and the number of individuals of these species will increase. There will be a larger number of soil fungi. With the added organic matter resulting from man's activities, the number of species may or may not decline, and the number of individuals of the tolerant species may continue to increase despite the reduction in avail? able oxygen. Aquatic fungi will decrease, soil fungi may increase, and species and cells of yeasts usually increase. Many of the species of fungi found in highly polluted waters appear to be capable of microaerophilic or anaerobic metabolism that permits their existence under low or nonexistent oxygen supplies. Man's metabolic and organic industrial waste products may be par? tially removed from receiving waters into sewage treatment systems. A limited number of organisms adapted to live in highly organically enriched waters may form balanced associations within sewage treat? ment systems, where, fed by a continual supply of readily usable organic matter, the associations may flourish without serious harm from competitors. In the sampling of populations of organisms in clean and polluted stxeams and in several types of sewage treatment systems, yeasts, as well as filamentous fungi, were obtained. Numbers of yeast colonies appearing on agar plates were low. Dr. L. J. Wickerham, Zymologist, Northern Utilization Research and Development Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, suggested a shaken-flask yeast enrichment culture technique for determining the relative incidence of yeasts, but in earlier work no quantitative evaluation of the technique was made. It has been used in routine surveys, and qualitative information con

Cytidia is a genus of fungi assigned by most contemporary American workers to the Thelephoraceae, by most contemporary European workers to the Cyphellaceae. The Cyphellaceae is a family which has been segregated from the Thelephoraceae because of the cup-shaped structure of the receptacle, which has definite margins, although margins of adjacent receptacles may become confluent. In general these fungi present the aspect of inverted Discomycetes. To the Cyphellaceae are assigned such genera as Cyphella, Solenia, Porothelium, Cytidia and Aleurodiscus. Both Cytidia and Aleurodiscus usually have large basidia, large basidiospores, and distinctive paraphyses of an acanthophysoid nature, characters which are usually lacking in the other three genera, in whose hymenia sterile bodies rarely occur and which usually have small basidia and basidiospores. Cytidia is further differentiated in that the hyphae of its receptacles are usually strongly gelatinized. Be? cause of these characters the present writer prefers to leave the genera Cytidia and Aleurodiscus in the Thelephoraceae without reference, at present, to any segregate of the family. In Cytidia, four species have been commonly recognized. The most widespread of these is C. salicina which occurs on willows and other deciduous woody plants in the northern hemisphere. While not collected frequently, C. flocculenta is also widespread throughout the northern hemisphere and also occurs in Australia. C. pezizoidea and C. habgallae are widespread throughout the tropics of both hemispheres but collected infrequently. C. simulans was described from South Africa. Two species of restricted dis? tribution will be described below; of these, one will be based on a collection from northern Idaho, the other on a few collections from northern California. Another species, usually placed in