126 THE NORTH AMERICAN SLIME-MOULDS 



short ; hypothallus well developed, black ; columella black, 

 slender, weak, generally dissipated some distance below the 

 apex; capillitium of slender brown or dusky threads anasto- 

 mosing to form an open network next the columella, but ex- 

 tended outwardly in form of long free slender branchlets, now 

 and then dichotomously forked ; spore-mass blue black, spores 

 by transmitted light dark brown, globose, warted, about 9 p. 



A very remarkable species. Rare in the west, more com- 

 mon, as it appears, in the eastern states. The sporangia occur 

 in tufts an inch or more wide, springing generally from crevices 

 in the bark of decaying logs, especially willow and elm, in 

 swampy places. The sporangia are remarkable for their great 

 length. Generally about 20-25 mm., specimens occasionally 

 reach 50 mm. ! The capillitial branches are so remote that 

 the spores are scarcely retained by the capillitium at all. Well 

 described and figured by the author of the species, Forty-third 

 Rep. N. Y. State Museum, p. 24, PL 3. 



New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa. 



3- COMATRICHA IRREGULARIS ReX. 



1891. Comatricha irregularis Rex., Proc. Phil. Acad., p. 393. 



Sporangia crowded in flocculent tufts, very dark brown or 

 black, semi-erect or drooping, 4-5 mm. in height, irregularly 

 cylindric, variable, stipitate ; stipe black, distinct, often one-half 

 the total height; hypothallus well developed, brown, shining; 

 columella central, slender, flexuous, reaching the apex, where 

 it blends, by branching, with the capillitium; capillitium loose, 

 open, composed of arcuate threads which radiate from the colu- 

 mella, and are joined together, forming a central, irregular 

 reticulation of large meshes, brown, paler toward the surface, 

 where the free ends are sometimes colorless ; spore-mass black, 

 spores by transmitted light brown, minutely warted, 7-8 /a. 



Related, no doubt, to C. tonga, but differing in habit, stature 

 as in the texture and structure of the capillitium. In C. longa 

 the inner net is extremely simple, a row or two of meshes at 

 most, and the radiating branches are long and straight ; in the 



