SCHENELLA 151 



tall, sometimes with a thick yellow waxy collar at apex just below the 

 sporangium; columella none, but the base of the sporangium broad and 

 flat, the capillitium of rigid, sparsely branched and anastomosing 

 purple filaments arising from this in brush-like fashion; spores pur- 

 plish gray, spinulose, 10-18 n in diameter. Plasmodium white. 



Scarcely a diachea as here defined; suggesting Lamproderma, but 

 without a columella. The spore range as given by Miss Lister seems un- 

 duly great. Specimens from Switzerland have spores 11-13 /x, rather 

 sparsely spinulose, and waxy stems, although lacking the collar. It 

 seems possible that Miss Lister's genus Leptoderma might be so 

 emended as to accommodate this distinctive species, but pending 

 further study it may remain here. 



Europe, Japan. 



2. Schenella Macbride 

 Mycologia3 : 39. 1911. 



Fructification aethalioid, depressed, flat, covered by a fragile, con- 

 tinuous crust; capillitium of simple threads twisted together to form 

 vertical, closely arranged columns passing from the base to the outer 

 peridium as if supporting it. Spores fuscous black. 



A single species : 



Schenella simplex Macbride 



Mycologia3 : 39. 1911. 

 PI. X, Figs. 237, 238; PL XXI, Figs. 563, 564. 



yEthalium oval, about 4 cm. long by 2 cm. wide and 3 mm. thick; 

 peridium pallid, soon disappearing; capillitium abundant, dark brown, 

 exposed by the breaking up of the crust-like peridium and then having 

 the appearance of a stemonitis colony, each column being made up of a 

 number of tubular, smooth, unsegmented threads twisted together so 

 as to form a cord, and in some instances covered in whole or part by a 

 delicate common sheath; spores very dark, spherical, ovate or some- 

 times pyriform, rather coarsely tuberculate, when spherical 5-6^ in 

 diameter. 



A very curious form, of somewhat doubtful affinities and placed in 

 the Stemonitaceae on the basis of the dark violet-brown spores and the 

 dark capillitium. There is no suggestion of columellae in the pillar-like 

 columns. To the naked eye it suggests an amaurochaate. In addition 

 to the typical spores, there occur in every mount a few paler, larger, 



