STEMONITIS 



117 



brown or purple black, at length gray, always with a purplish 

 tinge, long, cylindric, even, 10-15 mm. in height, stipitate; stipe 

 polished, black and shining, about one-fourth the total height, 

 expanded below into a thin hypothallus, which is continuous, 

 transparent, shining ; columella dissipated near the apex ; capil- 

 litium consisting of an inner network of very loose, open 

 structure, an outer net of small (14-56 //-) meshes more or less 

 abundantly supplied with projecting peridial processes ; spores 

 dark violaceous, the surface reticulate, 7-8 /*. 



This commonest American species is probably represented 

 in Europe by 5. dictyospora Rost. The rough-netted epispore 

 instantly distinguishes it. The sporangia are long and slender 

 in tufts, spreading from the centre. The inner network of 

 rich brown threads tends to show expanded nodes, sometimes 

 the threads are thickened throughout. The columella often 

 fails of reaching the apex of the sporangium, becoming com- 

 pletely dissolved in capillitial branches. The peridium is rarely 

 seen. The plasmodium is opaque, white ; very common on 

 decaying logs of Tilia americana. 



Widely distributed, cosmopolitan. 



5. castillensis Macbr., from Nicaragua, Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, 

 Vol. II., p. 381, may be regarded as a very large and stout vari- 

 ety of the present species, 5". maxima castillensis." The inner 

 capillitial net is made up of very stout, dark brown threads, 

 very much dilated at the nodes ; the surface meshes are also 

 much larger than in the type ; the spores as in 5. maxima, but 

 with reticulations more pronounced. 



5. STEMONITIS VIRGINIENSIS Rex. 



1891. Stemonitis -virginiensis Rex, Proc. Phil. Acad., p. 391. 



Sporangia erect, gregarious, from a common hypothallus, 

 generally clustered, cylindric or elongate-ovate, stipitate ; stipe 

 black, shining ; columella reaching the apex, where it blends 

 with the capillitium ; capillitium delicate, the meshes of the net 

 small, scarcely greater than the diameter of the spores ; spore- 



