176 THE MYXOMYCETES 



stipitate; stipe black, distinct, often one-half the total height; hypo- 

 thallus well developed, brown, shining; columella central, slender, 

 flexuous, reaching the apex, where it blends, by branching, with the 

 capillitium; capillitium loose, open, composed of arcuate threads which 

 radiate from the columella, and are joined together, forming a central, 

 irregular reticulation of large meshes, brown, paler toward the surface, 

 where the free ends are sometimes colorless; spore-mass black; spores 

 by transmitted light brown, echinulate, 7.5-9.5 ju. 



Related, no doubt, to C. longa, but differing in habit, stature, as 

 in texture and structure of the capillitium. In C. longa the inner net 

 is extremely simple, a row or two of meshes at most, and the radiat- 

 ing branches are long and straight; in the species before us the 

 inner network is well developed, and the radiating branches propor- 

 tionately shorter and abundantly branching, with pale or white free 

 tips. 



This species has been widely distributed as C. crypta based on 

 Stemonitis crypta Schw. (Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 4 : 260, 1832.) 

 The type of Schweinitz' species is lost and the description is not clear, 

 hence the name should be discarded. 



Generally, though not always, found growing in the crevices of the 

 bark on fallen logs of various deciduous trees. Not common. 



New England west to the Cascade Mountains, south to Kansas 

 and Texas, Puerto Rico. 



7. Comatricha pilamentosa Meylan 



Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sc. Nat. 53 : 456. 1920. 



1911. Comatricha nigra (Pers.) Schroet. var. alia Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 2. 152, 

 in part. 



Sporangia dark brown, in large clusters, elliptical or subglobose, 

 0.8-1 mm. tall, borne on stems 0.5-1 mm. long; columella reaching to 

 summit, where it is sometimes slightly enlarged as in Enerthenema; 

 capillitium in the form of an interrupted net of anastomosing, sparsely 

 branched, smooth, brown filaments of uniform size, very weakly at- 

 tached to the stipe and falling away with the spores at maturity; 

 spores brown, spiny, 10-12 fx. 



Regarded by Lister as a phase of Comatricha nigra var. alta. Meylan 

 considers it related to C. laxa. The caducous capillitium separates it 

 from the former species; the spore-size from both. 



Switzerland. 



