156 THE MYXOMYCETES 



S. tubulina Alb. & Schw., admitting, however, at the same time, that 

 as fine an authority as Raciborsky refuses to call Zukal's species either 

 a stemonite or an amaurochaete, thinking it deserving of generic ap- 

 oellation of its own. However, A. speciosa Zuk. need not here concern 

 us. Neither in his description nor figures does Zukal at all approach 

 the form we study. His species is not an amaurochaete; the size of the 

 spores suggests that, to say nothing of the capiUitial structure. 



In the same volume Saccardo introduces another amaurochaete, 

 A. minor Sacc. & Ellis (Mich. 2 : 566). This is American, sent from 

 Utah by our famous pioneer collector Harkness. A portion of this 

 collection is in the herbarium of the University of Iowa, and is by us 

 referred to Lepidoderma granuliferum. 



Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington; Europe. 



5. Amaurochaete comata G. List. &* Brandza 



Jour. Bot. 64 : 225. 1926. 



^thalia scattered, pulvinate, black and glossy, 5-50 mm. in di- 

 ameter, on a shining membranous hypothallus; columellae none; cap- 

 illitium of flexuose, branching, black threads, 1-3 \x in diameter, at- 

 tached above and below to the membranous walls of the aethalium; 

 spores 11-14/x in diameter, dark purplish gray, closely warted, some- 

 what paler and smoother on one side. Plasmodium white. 



In general appearance closely resembling A . tubulina, but differing 

 in the absence of any suggestion of columellae, in the finer and more 

 flexuose capillitium and in the darker, more distinctly warted spores. 

 The original description gives the spore-size as 11-12 /i. Spores of 

 authentic material from Professor Brandza average 13.2 \x and range 

 from 11-14 ju, occasionally varying beyond these limits. 



Rumania, Switzerland. 



4. Brefeldia Rostafinski 

 Versuch8. 1873. 



Fructification aethalioid, the constituent veins occupying several 

 layers, those of the median, and especially of the lowest layer furnished 

 with columellae which blend beneath; capillitium threads arising from 

 the columellae and united at adjacent tips by prominent inflated sacs. 



The genus Brefeldia is, like some others, difficult to dispose of in 

 any scheme of classification where linear sequence must be followed. 

 Rostafinski placed it in an order by itself. Its relationships are on the 

 one hand with Amaurochaete and on the other with Stemonitis, though 

 it is easily distinguished from either of these genera. It is intermediate 

 between the two, but apparently a little nearer Stemonitis. 



