18 THAXTER. 



This species appears to be very common and widely distribvited. 

 It belongs to the type formerly distinguished as ' Distichomyces ' the 

 very slender receptacle being biseriate instead of triseriate as in a 

 majority of the Rickiae. The antheridia are scanty and the antheri- 

 dial cells appear to become free in rather irregular groups. The axis 

 though often simple may be divided into several more or less elongate 

 secondary axes, or a main axis may persist from which as many as ten 

 short secondary axes may arise on either side, and since each axis is 

 eventually terminated by a perithecium there may sometimes, though 

 rarely, be as many as a dozen of the latter on a single individual. The 

 unbranched condition appears, however, to be the normal one, al- 

 though, whenever the termination of an axis is injured, branching 

 invariably follows. The peculiar contour seen in the side view of 

 the tip of the perithecium is usually not visible owing to the fact that 

 the latter is more often bent abruptly sidewise so that it is viewed end 

 on in most preparations. Its outline is somewhat variable, the 

 tongue-like projection being stouter or more slender in different cases 

 and more or less distinctly recurved, while the subtending rounded 

 projection which, together with the tongue, remotely suggests the 

 head of a tufted fowl, is also variable in its prominence. The species 

 is most nearly allied to R. nutans of Ceylon. 



Rickia apiculifera nov. sp. 



Axis typically simple, not infrequently rather copiously branched, 

 especially when injured; sometimes rather broad and short, but often 

 greatly elongated; not infrequently slightly broader just above the 

 single basal cell, but sometimes quite slender throughout; all the axes 

 finally terminating in perithecia; the axis biseriate, the cell-number 

 indeterminate; usually not much longer, often shorter, than broad. 

 The basal cells of the primary appendage arising, usually, from the 

 third or fourth cell above the basal cell, on either the anterior or 

 posterior side. The appendages in general rather large, usually more 

 or less persistent, numerous, divergent, especially near the base, 

 irregularly distributed. Antheridia scarity, the cells becoming free. 

 The terminal cell of the anterior cell-series larger and broader, and 

 distally in oblique contact with the base of the perithecium; or ex- 

 tending upward beside it, and sometimes cutting off a terminal ap- 

 pendiculate cell which may reach even to the middle of the anterior 

 margin of the perithecium; the posterior series of axis-cells continuous 



