COMATRICHA 175 



known as S. webberi Rex, but it differs from this in almost every 

 particular. It has no net with meshes uniform or diverse; it is clear 

 brown in color, with a tinge of red, beneath the lens; the spores are 

 smaller, distinctly warted and with the reddish tinge of the capillitium; 

 in short, it seems to be a comatricha and not a stemonitis. 



Specimens from western Washington differ in some particulars but 

 are apparently the same thing. 



Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Montana, Washington, California; not 

 common. Reported from Europe and temperate regions generally. 



5. Comatricha longa Peck 



Rept. N. Y. State Mus. 43 : 24. 1890. 

 PI. XIII, Figs. 303, 304. 



1892. Stemonitis longa (Pk.) Massee, Mon. 83. 



1909. Stemonitis equinoctialis Welw., in Torrend, Fl. Myx. 138. 



Sporangia crowded in depressed masses or tufts, black, stipitate, 

 cylindric, even, 10-25 mm. or more in height; stipe black, shining, 

 generally very short; hypothallus well developed, dark, shining; col- 

 umella black, slender, weak, generally dissipated some distance below 

 the apex; capillitium of slender brown or dusky threads anastomosing 

 to form an open network next the columella, but extended outwardly 

 in form of long free slender branchlets, now and then dichotomously 

 forked; spore-mass blue-black; spores by transmitted light dark brown, 

 globose, spinulose, sometimes reticulate, 8-10 /*. 



A very remarkable species. Rare in the west, more common, as it 

 appears, in the eastern states. The sporangia occur in tufts about 

 1 or 2 cm. wide, springing generally from crevices in the bark of 

 decaying logs, especially willow and elm, in swampy places. The 

 sporangia are remarkable for their great length. Generally about 

 20-25 mm., specimens occasionally reach 50 mm.! The capillitial 

 branches are so remote that the spores are scarcely retained by the 

 capillitium at all. 



New York, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Ohio, Wisconsin, 

 Iowa, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Argentina; Europe, Africa, southern Asia, 

 Japan. 



6. Comatricha irregularis Rex 



Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila. 1891 : 393. 

 PL XII, Figs. 286, 287. 



1893. Comatricha crypta (Schw.) Macbr., Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist. Iowa 2 : 139. 



1894. Comatricha longa Pk. var. irregularis Lister, Mycetozoa 120. 



Sporangia crowded in flocculent tufts, dark brown or black, semi- 

 erect or drooping, 3-6 mm. in height, irregularly cylindric, variable, 



