160 Mycetozoa of North America 



setaceous, black, shining, 0.75 mm. long, rising from a circular, 

 brown hypothallus. Columella cylindrical, reaching to half the 

 height of the sporangium, dividing into stout branches at the apex, 

 and continued into the capillitium. Capillitium dark, purplish 

 brown throughout, spreading from the upper part of the columella 

 in flexuose, anastomosing threads, with slender brown free ends. 

 Spores spherical or subovoid, purplish gray, coarsely warted, 

 6-10 fjL diam. (Plate 3.) 



Type locality: England.- 



Habitat: On dead leaves. 



Distribution: New York. 



Illustration: Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. pi. 127, figs. a-c. 



Two collections of this species have been made on Long Island, 

 New York, having sporangia quite different from those of C. 

 rubens from the same area; they are of about the same size but are 

 globose and darker. The columella divides at the top into the 

 primary branches of the capillitium. The latter has no attach- 

 ments to the lower part of the columella, and the persistent lower 

 part of the sporangial wall with its attachments to the capillitium 

 is not present as it is in C. rubens. The spores are a little larger, 

 darker, and more strongh" marked than those of C. rubens, but 

 not as much as in the English specimens. The specimens prob- 

 ably represent the American variation. 



6. Comatricha fimbriata G. Lister & Cran ; G. Lister, Jour. Bot. 

 55: 122. 1917. 



Plasmodium colorless (Lister). Sporangia scattered, stalked, 

 globose, blackish brown, 0.1 to 0.35 mm. diam. Stalk black, 

 subulate, slender, straight or curved, 0.5 to 1 mm. high. Capil- 

 litium arising chiefly from the summit of a short, truncate col- 

 umella, consisting of a scanty tuft of purplish brown threads, 

 extremely slender at the base, either simple throughout, or forking 

 below the clavate or irregularly expanded tips. Spores grayish 

 purple, paler and smoother on one side, closely and minutely 

 spinulose, 10-12 ^ diam. 



Type locality: England. 



Habitat: On dead wood, bark, and stems. 



Distrimution: Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York. 



Illustration: Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. pi. 210, figs. e'^. 



A very small, fragile species which has been obtained so far 

 from North America only in moist chamber developments. The 



