80 
In this group we have a good example of the author’s ideas 
and methods of classification. The major divisions of the 
Myxomycetes are first (p. 30) called orders, and their divisions 
sub-orders, but here (p. 69) we have the Colwmellifere spoken of as 
“the present section,’ and then “the two sub-sections.” On page 
71 we have the formal headings, “Sub-sect. Stemonite’’ and 
“ Sub-sect. Lamprodeme,” but no distinctions between the two 
are alleged. Under the first “ sub-sect.” are Stemonitis, Siphopty- 
chium, Amaurochete, Brefeldia, Rostafinskia and Reticularia ; under 
the Lamprodermae come Enerthenema, Ancyrophorus, Lamproderma, 
Echinostelium, Raciborskia, and Orthotricha. Under the description 
of Lamproderma we read, “closely allied to Diachaea and Stemonitis, 
but differing from both in having the threads of the capillitium 
originating from the apex of the columella only.” On the next 
page, under the first species, ZL. véolaceum ; “a very distinct and 
beautiful species, characterized by having the sporangium flattened 
and umbilicate, and the almost colorless capillitium springing from 
every part of the columella.” Thus the first species does not 
possess the only distinctive generic character, and would be a 
Stemonitis if the definitions were strictly applied, and yet, by the 
arrangement here followed, five genera come between Lamproderma 
and Szemonitis, none of which bear any very close relation to either. 
Siphoptychium has been supposed to find its nearest ally in Zudulina, 
and the author goes so far as to suggest its descent from 7udbulina 
cylindrica, or some closely allied form, and yet he puts it in another 
order, between Stemonitis and Amaurochaete, to neither of which it 
has any affinity, except the other kind which does not involve 
descent. 
Ancyrophorus is a recently described genus from Denmark, 
allied to Exerthenema, but with the capillitium springing from the 
upper part of the columella as well as from its discoid apex. 
There is an undescribed American species. 
Orthotricha microcephala, Wingate, has been reduced by Schroter 
to Clastoderma Debaryanum, A. Blytt, but this genus is not men- 
tioned, nor the species either, in the present work, though Schrot- 
er’s reduction was published in 1889. 
If there are any valid distinctions of generic importance De- 
tween Raciborskia and Orthotricha they are not made plain by the _ 
