PROTO TRICHIA 1 99 



evanescent except the calyculus, which is small and thin, pol- 

 ished ; stipe shorter than the expanded capillitium, pale reddish 

 brown ; capillitium centrally attached, showing threads of two 

 sorts, those within freely branching, slender, i-i| /A, marked 

 with half-rings or ridges, those on the periphery very different, 

 yellow, broad, 5-6 /LI, forming rather dense reticulations, with 

 abundant free tips, acute and often curved, the whole surface 

 here minutely and densely warted ; spore-mass reddish yellow, 

 spores by transmitted light colorless, globose, 7-8 p. 



The peculiar double capillitium seems to separate this form 

 from the true Arcyrias. Some difference in the diameter of the 

 capillitial threads in different regions is not infrequent in the 

 several species of Arcyria, but that difference is here empha- 

 sized and rendered yet more striking by the peculiar free tips. 

 The present forms bear only the most superficial resemblance 

 to A.ferruginea Saut, with which species it is in some quarters 

 sought to unite it. 



Very rare. Collected, as noted, nearly fifty years ago in 

 South Carolina by Ravenel, it has recently (1896) been again 

 collected in Maine by Professor Harvey, to whom we are espe- 

 cially indebted for a glimpse of this most curious species. 



D. PROTOTRICHIE^E. 



A single genus, - 



Prototrichia Rost. 



1876. Prototrichia Rost., Man. App., p. 38. 

 A single species, - 



i. PROTOTRICHIA FLAGELLIFERA {Berk, and Br.) Rost. 



1866. Trichia flagellifer Berk, and Br., Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 3, XVIIL, 

 p. 56. 



Sporangia sessile, scattered or sometimes crowded, brown, 

 sometimes with a rosy tinge, about I mm. in diameter ; peridium 

 a thin, transparent, iridescent membrane, bearing in its inner 



