LAMPRODERMA.] STEMONITACEyE. 127 



fuliginous. Stalk subulate or cylindrical, 1 to T5 mm. long, black, 

 rising from a well-developed hypothallus. Columella cylindrical, 

 obtuse, about half the height of the sporangium. Capillitium 

 black or cinereous, spreading chiefly from the upper part of the 

 columella, threads stout, sparingly forked and anastomosing, 

 colourless and slender at the tips. Spores dark grey, echinulate 

 with black spines, 15 to 20 /JL diam. Lister, in Journ. Bot. (1891), 

 p. 261 ; Mass., Mon., p. 97. Stemonitis echinulata Berk, in Hook. 

 Fl. Tasm., p. 268 (1860). Lamproderma Listeri Mass., Mon., p. 97. 



Plate XLVIIL, A. a. sporangia, x 3^ (New Zealand) ; b. columella of 

 same, x 80 ; c. sporangia, x 3^ (Tasmania) ; d. columella and capillitium 

 of same, x 80 ; e. sporangia, x 3i- (Moffat) ; /. columella and capillitium, 

 x 80 ; g. spore, x 600. 



In the type specimen from Tasmania many of the stalks are mis- 

 shapen and tumid, and the primary branches of the capillitium are soon 

 lost in a flaccid network of grey threads with broad expansions at the 

 nodes ; somewhat similar appearances are met with both in the stalks 

 and capillitium of L. violaceum when matured under unfavourable 

 conditions, and it appears probable that this specimen is not a perfect 

 development ; the primary threads in some parts are continuous and 

 branched towards the surface in the manner usual in Lamproderma. 

 The specimen from New Zealand is mouldy and difficult to examine, 

 but the capillitium forms less of a network, and more nearly approaches 

 the Moffat gathering, which is in perfect development, and is that 

 described in the text and in the Journ. Bot., I.e. The remarkable 

 spores are of the same character in all the specimens, and until further 

 examples are obtained it would seem well to include them under one 

 species. 



Hab. On dead wood. Moffat, Scotland (L:B.M.96) ; Tasmania 

 (K. 1621) ; New Zealand (L:B.M.96). 



3. L. arcyrionema Host., Mon., p. 208, App. p. 26 (1875). 

 Plasmodium watery-white, in rotten wood. Total height 1 to 

 1-5 mm. Sporangia globose, stipitate, erect, aggregated, - 5 mm. 

 diam., steel-grey or bronze with iridescent reflections ; sporangium- 

 wall membranous, falling away in large fragments, often persis- 

 tent as a collar round the base of the sporangium. Stalk 

 subulate-setaceous, about 1 mm. high, black, shining. Columella 

 slender, smooth, cylindrical, about 12 ^ broad, reaching to one- 

 third or one-half the height of the sporangium, suddenly dividing 

 at the apex into the primary branches of the capillitium. Capilli- 

 tium of dark purple-brown threads arising from the apex of the 

 columella, branching repeatedly and anastomosing to form a close 

 crisped network, with very short free ends. Spores lilac-grey, 

 smooth or very faintly warted, 6 to 7 //, diam. Mass., Mon., 

 p. 96. /Stemonitis physaroides var. subaeneus Berk., in Mass., 

 Mon., p. 95. Lamproderma subaeneum Mass., I.e. Comatricha 

 Shimekiana Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 380, 

 PL x., fig. 3. 



Plate XLVIIL, B. a. sporangia, x 3i (United States) ; b. capillitium of 

 same, x 180 ; c. sporangia, x 20 (England) ; d. columella and capillitium, 

 x 80 ; e. spore, x 600, 



