D I ACHE A 135 



spores in mass nearly black, by transmitted light dull viola- 

 ceous, minutely roughened, 7-9 /x. 



A very beautiful species; not uncommon in the eastern states; 

 rare west of the Mississippi. Easily recognized, amid related 

 forms, by its snow white stem, a feature which did not escape 

 the notice of Bulliard and suggested the accepted specific name. 

 Fries adopted the specific name proposed by Trentepohl and 

 wrote D. elcgans, simply because to him the peridium was 

 " admodum elegans." 



The peridium is exceedingly thin and early deciduous ; the 

 stipe long persistent. The plasmodium, dull white, was observed 

 by Fries at the beginning of the century ; " morphoseos clavem 

 inter myxogastres hoc genus primum mihi subministravit." 



This species, as the Diachcas generally, affects fallen sticks 

 and leaves in orchards and forests and even spreads boldly over 

 the foliage and stems of living plants. 



New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, 

 South Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, California. 



2. DlACHEA SPLENDENS Peck. 



PLATE VII., Figs, i, \ a, i b, i c. 

 1877. Diachea splendens Peck, Rep. N. Y. Mus., XXX., p. 50. 



Sporangia gregarious, metallic blue with brilliant iridescence, 

 globose, stipitate ; stipe white, short, tapering upward ; hypo- 

 thallus white venulose, a network supporting the snowy stipes ; 

 columella white, cylindric, passing the centre, obtuse ; capil- 

 litium lax, of slender, anastomosing, brown, translucent threads ; 

 spores in mass black, by transmitted light dark violaceous, very 

 coarsely warted, 7-10 /LI. 



This is perhaps the most showy species of the list. The 

 brilliantly iridescent sporangia are lifted above the substratum 

 on snow white columnar stalks ; these are again joined one to 

 another by the pure white vein-like cords of the reticulate hypo- 

 thallus. The plasmodium may spread very widely over all sorts 

 of objects that come in the way, dry forest leaves and sticks, or 

 the fruit and foliage of living plants. Closely resembling the 



