COMATRICHA 129 



Not common. Probably overlooked by reason of its minute- 

 ness. 



Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, North 

 Carolina. 



Rostafinski calls this C. friesiana, a name suggested by 

 De Bary. By this name the species has since been commonly 

 designated. Lister writes C. obtusata Preuss ; but C. obtusata 

 Preuss, as figured by that author (Sturm's Deutsch. Fl., PI. 70), 

 is surely more likely Enerthenema papillata, and the author says 

 in his description " capillitio vertice soli innato." Persoon cer- 

 tainly recognized the species, and his description, though brief, 

 is yet applicable to no other European species. There seems 

 no reason why the name he gave should not abide. 



6. COMATRICHA PULCHELLA (Bab.} Rost. 



PLATE XIII., Fig. 4. 



1839. Stemonitis pulchella Babington, Trails. Lin. Soc., p. 32. 

 1841. Comatricha pulchella Bab., Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., I. vi., p. 431, 



PI. XII., ir. a. b. 



1876. Comatricha pulchella (Bab.) Rost., Man. App., p. 27. 



1848. Stemonitis tenerrima Curtis, Am. Jour., VI., p. 352. 

 1873. Stemonitis tenerrima B. and C., Grev., II., p. 69. 



Sporangia very minute, I mm. high, scattered, ovate or ovate 

 cylindric acuminate, pale brown or ferruginous, stipitate ; stipe 

 short, black, nearly even ; hypothallus none ; columella straight, 

 gradually tapering, reaching almost if not quite to the apex of 

 the sporangium ; capillitium dense, a network of flexuous brown 

 threads, rather broad within, ending in slender tips without; 

 spore-mass brown, spores by transmitted light pale "lilac brown," 

 or pale ferruginous, minutely but uniformly warted, 6-8 p. 



A rare and beautiful little species, distinguished at sight by 

 its peculiar ovate outline. By earlier authors it seems to have 

 been confused with C. nigra. Cf. Fries, 5. ovata, etc. Rosta- 

 finski describes it well, but creates confusion by placing S. pul- 

 chella Bab. as a synonym, a mistake corrected as far as was 

 possible in the Appendix, p. 27. C. rnbens Lister, from Phila- 



