174 THE MYXOMYCETES 



sinuose and irregular, either extending to the apex or merging with 

 the capillitium; the latter consists of branched and anastomosing 

 brown threads spreading from all parts of the columella and generally 

 coarsely meshed within; spores pale violet-brown, 8-9 n in diameter, 

 reticulated with narrow ridges 0.5 fx high. 

 Long Island, N. Y., on dead leaves. 



4. Comatricha flaccida (Lister) Morgan 



Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist. 16 : 133. 1894. 

 PL XII, Figs. 284, 285. 



1894. Stemonitis splendens Rost. var. flaccida Lister, Mycetozoa 112. 



Sporangia semi-erect, closely crowded in tufts up to 5 cm. in di- 

 ameter, ferruginous, from a dark brown hypothallus, sessile or short- 

 stipitate; columella weak, crooked, percurrent, generally enlarged 

 irregularly at the apex; capillitium of few, slender, brown branches 

 which anastomose sparsely and irregularly as in C. irregularis, and 

 present when freed from spores the same chenille-like appearance; 

 spore-mass ferruginous brown; spores by transmitted light bright 

 reddish brown, minutely warted, 7.5-8 \i. 



" Growing on old wood and bark of oak, willow, etc. The component 

 sporangia 5-10 mm. in length. The early appearance is much like 

 that of a species of Stemonitis, but the mature stage is a great mass of 

 spores with scanty capillitium, as in Reticularia; the columellas, how- 

 ever, are genuine and not adjacent portions of wall grown together." 

 Morgan. 



Morgan's herbarium material is at hand for study. It meets his 

 description, needless to say, very generally. In what remains of the 

 type the membranous connections are obscure; in fact the relation of 

 such peridial fragments to the capillitium in any way is no longer 

 evident. But in any event the colony does not impress one as something 

 prematurely or improperly developed, a stemonitis gone begging; — 

 nothing of the kind; it is clearly a comatricha, easily identifiable as 

 such, with no trace of a surface net, but with long free tips in 

 plenty. 



Misled, no doubt, by the peridial fragments referred to, Mr. Lister, 

 in the Mycetozoa, associated this with S. confluens Cke. & Ell., but 

 entered it as a variety of S. splendens Rost. just the same. In the 

 later editions of the same work, Ellis' species is set out, but Morgan's 

 retains the old position. In the light of present knowledge, the rela- 

 tionship suggested would be difficult of proof. If C. flaccida Morgan 

 be related to the splendens group at all, it must be with the form 



