92 ENDOSPORE^E. [DIACH.EA. 



stout, conical, or shortly cylindrical, densely charged with orange 

 lime-granules. Capillitium radiating from all parts of the 

 colurnella, composed of rather rigid violet-brown threads, branch- 

 ing and anastomosing, tapering to the hyaline extremities. Spores 

 olive- coloured, marked with small scattered warts, and four to 

 eight prominences, each of which a high magnifying power resolves 

 into a compact cluster of minute warts, 9 to 1 1 /x diam. 



Plate XXXVI., B. a. sporangia, x 20 ; b. capillitium and spores, x 280 ; 

 c. spores, x 600 (North Carolina, U.S.A.) ; d. sporangia, x 20 ; e. colurnella 

 and capillitium, x 50 ; /. spore, x 600 (Killary, U.S.A.). 



The specimen figured (Plate XXXVI., B, d-f) was received from 

 Prof. Farlow, and is part of a gathering by Prof. Thaxter, Killery, 

 U.S.A. The sporangia are sessile, subcylindrical, crowded and some- 

 what angled by mutual pressure, iridescent, rising from an opaque 

 ochraceous common hypothallus, which extends into a membranous 

 pellicle ; the sporangium-wall is persistent, membranous, hyaline or 

 dull purple at the base ; the columella is a narrow, membranous, 

 wrinkled tube, dirty ochraceous or brown, reaching nearly to the apex 

 of the sporangium, empty above, with scanty deposits of lime some- 

 times present in the lower part ; the capillitium and spores are as in 

 D. Thomasii. Prof. Farlow has gathered this form more than once, 

 growing in tufts, on moss, always in poor condition, bat with the 

 ochraceous hypothallus, narrow columella, and capillitium and spores 

 similar to those in the gathering by Prof. Thaxter. A portion of 

 Prof. Thaxter' s specimen was submitted to Dr. Rex, who states that 

 it is the same species as one described by Dr. Sturgis as Comatricha 

 ccespitosa n. sp. in Bot. Gazette, xviii., p. 186 (1893). The mem- 

 branous columella almost free from lime, resembling some Ceylon 

 specimens of D. elegans, and the opaque ochraceous hypothallus, mark 

 the species as distinct from any of the Stemonitacece ; on the other 

 hand, it so closely resembles D. Thomasii that it appears to be a form 

 of that species, though less perfectly developed than the type. 



Hal). On bark and moss. N. Carolina (L:B.M.70). 



SPECIES NOT MET WITH IN THE QUOTED COLLECTIONS. 



4. D. subsessilis Peck, Rep. N. York Mus. Nat. Hist., xxxi., 

 p. 41. Sporangia gregarious or crowded, subglobose, sessile or 

 with very short white stalks; sporangium- wall delicate, iridescent; 

 columella obsolete ; capillitium and spores violet -brown ; spores 

 globose, rough, 10 to 12 /x diam. 



Hab. On fallen leaves. Adirondack Mts., N.Y. 



The spores of this species, according to Dr. Rex, are marked with 

 diffusely branched rows of minute papillae, ranged side by side in a 

 moniliform manner, and forming either a complete or broken reticu- 

 lation. (See Rex, in Proc. Acad. N. Sc. Phil., 1893, p. 368.) 



SPECIES EXCLUDED FROM THE GENUS. 



Diachcea Hookeri Mass. = Chondrioderma Hookeri List. 



