154 THE MYXOMYCETES 



3. Amauroch^ete trechispora Macbride &* Martin 



Jour. Wash. Acad. Sc. 22 : 89. 1932. 

 PI. XI, Figs. 239, 240. 



iEthalium pulvinate, flat, up to 7 cm. in length; cortex dark, shining, 

 evanescent, faintly tuberculate as though suggesting the tips of com- 

 ponent sporangia; hypothallus broadly expanded, persistent, extend- 

 ing well beyond the borders of the asthalium, silvery, with yellowish 

 stains and amber globules representing remnants of the presumably 

 yellow plasmodium; capillitium black, irregular, composed of numer- 

 ous stout columella-like bases which soon become dissipated into nu- 

 merous branches, these anastomosing freely; peripheral nets lacking; 

 spores purplish black in mass, lilaceous brown by transmitted light, 

 globose, ornamented with a pronounced reticulation formed of wing- 

 like ridges, the meshes coarse and often unequal, 13-15 /x in diameter, 

 of which 10-12 ix represents the diameter of the body of the spore, the 

 balance the ridges of the reticulum. 



A well-marked species, related to A . fuliginosa but separated by its 

 remarkable and striking spores. Based on a collection from northern 

 Ontario well described by Miss Currie and by her doubtfully referred 

 to Stemonitis fusca Roth. var. trechispora Torrend. A later collection 

 from the same region by Dr. Jackson confirms the species. Aside from 

 the reference to the strongly reticulated spores and the occurrence 

 on Sphagnum, there is nothing in Torrend's brief description of his 

 variety to suggest the present species, nor can it be the form described 

 and illustrated by Jahn as Stemonitis trechispora Torr. It is clearly an 

 Amaurochaete. 



Ontario. 



4. Amaurochaete tubulina (Alb. & Schw.) Macbr. 



N. A. Slime-Moulds ed. 2. 150. 1922. 

 PI. XI, Fig. 243. 



1805. Stemonitis tubulina Alb. & Schw., Consp. Fung. 102. 



1825. Lachnobotus cribrosus Ft., Syst. Orb. Veg. 148. 



1917. Amaurochtzte cribrosa (Fr.) Sturgis, Mycologia 9 : 328. 



1924. Matruchotiella splendida Skup., Bull. Acad. Pol. Sc. 396. 



Plasmodium at first transparent, then white, then rosy, ashen or 

 gray, finally deepening to jet-black; the aethalium even, thin, variable 

 in extent from one to ten centimeters, covered by a distinct but thin 

 transparent cortex, papillate, extended laterally but a short distance 

 beyond the fructification, fragile, soon disappearing; hypothallus long- 

 persistent, thin, silvery, supporting the capillitium as if by stipes, 

 short slender columns, irregular plates, expansions, etc.; capillitium 



