120 ENDOSPORE^. [COMATRICHA. 



cylindrical, elongated and slender, flexuose or drooping, stipitate, 

 at first fasciculate, greyish-black; sporangium-wall evanescent. 

 Stalk very slender, 1 to 3 mm. long, black, rising from a well- 

 developed, membranous hypothallus. Columella continued to 

 near the apex of the sporangium, very slender, and wavy with 

 angular flexures in the upper part, tapering in breadth from 

 20 /u, at the base to 2 /x, near the summit. Capillitium a lax 

 network of dark brown threads, the terminal branches rigid, free, 

 forking at an acute angle. Spores dark grey, spinulose, the 

 spines usually connected by faint lines forming a reticulation, 

 8 to 9 fj. diam. Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 140 ; 

 Morgan, Cine. Soc. Nat. Hist., xvi., p. 50. Stemonitis longa 

 Mass., Mon., p. 83. 



a. genuina : capillitiurn rigid ; spores spinulose, reticulated. 



ft. irregularis : capillitiurn with flaccid terminal branchlets ; 

 spores spinulose. Comatricha irregularis Rex, in Proc. Acad. 

 N. Sc. Phil. (1891), p. 393. Comatricha crypta Macbride, in Bull. 

 Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 139. 



Plate XLV., A. a., b. sporangia, a. genuina, x 3^ ; <?. capillitium from 

 upper part of sporangium, with slender flexuose columella, x 180 ; d. 

 capillitium from lower part of another sporangium, x 180 ; e. spores of 

 same, showing varying amount of reticulation, x 600 ; /. sporangia of 

 j8. irregularis, x 3^ ; g. capillitium, x 180; h. spore of same, x 600; 

 i. spore of C. crypta Macbride. showing faint indication of reticulation, x 

 600 (U.S.A.). 



From the absence of any superficial net in the capillitium this 

 species is placed in Comatricha, though in its fasciculate habit it 

 resembles a Stemonitis. In a, the capillitium varies in different gather- 

 ings ; in some the threads are comparatively short, rigid throughout, 

 and anastomosing but little ; in others they form a profuse network 

 with many membranous expansions, and very slender free ends, but 

 the character of the dark spinulose spores remains constant in all 

 forms. j3 is described by Dr. Rex (I.e., p. 393) under the name of 

 Comatricha irregularis ; the terminal branches of the capillitium are 

 produced into a network of pale flaccid threads with many free ends ; 

 Dr. Rex (in litt.) states that this form is constant in the character of 

 the capillitium, and that it has been obtained from five states in North 

 America ; the total length of the sporangia varies from about 4 to 

 7 mm., but the close resemblance in the capillitium and spores to 

 forms of C. longa leads to the conclusion that it is a varietal develop- 

 ment of that species. It is the form described under the name of 

 C. crypta Macbride, I.e. (teste Rex). The type specimen of Stemonitis 

 crypta Schwein. is, Dr. Rex states, utterly lost, and the description is 

 too vague to be of value. 



Hal>. On the bark of fallen trees (teste Macbride). a. and /3. Ohio 

 (L:B.M.90) ; a. Philadelphia (B. M. 900) ; /3. Philadelphia (L:B.M.90) ; 

 /3. Iowa (B. M. 1006) ; a. S. Carolina (B. M. 915) ; a. Cuba (K. 1603) ; 

 a. Nicaragua (K. 718). 



5. C. typhoides Host., Yersuch, p. 7 (1873). Plasmodium 

 watery-white, in rotten wood. Total height 2 to 3 mm. Sporangia 

 cylindrical, obtuse, at first silvery-grey from the presence of the 

 soon evanescent wall, then brown ; stipitate, aggregated, 1 '5 to 



