OLIGONEMA 277 



1876. Prototrichia flagellifer (Berk. & Br.) Rost, Mon. App. 38. 



1876. Prototrichia elegantula Rost., Mon. App. 39. 



1889. Prototrichia cuprea Mass., Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc. 351. 



1892. Prototrichia chamceleontina Mass., Mon. 130, in part. 



1921. Prototrichia schroeteri Meylan, Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sc. Nat. 53 : 462. 



Sporangia sessile, scattered or sometimes crowded, orange-brown to 

 dull brown, sometimes with a rosy tinge, 0.5-1 mm. in diameter or 

 larger; peridium a thin, transparent, iridescent membrane, bearing on 

 its inner surface the distal attachments of the capillitial threads; 

 capillitium of numerous brown, spirally banded threads, which take 

 origin in the base of the sporangium, become subdivided as they as- 

 cend, the branches often interwoven spirally, and are at length attached 

 by their tips to the sporangium wall; spore-mass brown; spores by 

 transmitted light pale, spiny, 10-13 fx, occasionally up to 15 ix. 



This curious form, with its spirally sculptured capillitial threads 

 attached at both ends, stands intermediate between Dianema on the 

 one hand and Hemitrichia and Trichia on the other. Berkeley called 

 it a trichia, ignoring the attachment of the threads. Cooke notes this 

 as sufficient to exclude the form from the genus. It remained for 

 Rostafinski to make the transfer by setting up for its reception the 

 genus now adopted. He preferred the later (1866) specific name as 

 more descriptive. Miss Lister reverts to the earlier name with the 

 remark: "Little now remains of the type of Trichia metallica Berk, 

 from Tasmania; but the specimen is referred to Prototrichia flagellif era 

 by Rostafinski, who saw it in good condition." 



Not uncommon in the coniferous forests of the west. Alberta to 

 Washington, California and Colorado; also Tasmania, Europe. 



2. Oligonema Rost. 



Mon. 291. 1875. 



Fructification sporangiate, or rarely somewhat plasmodiocarpous, 

 gregarious to densely crowded, often superimposed; peridium trans- 

 parent, yellow to olivaceous; capillitium usually rather scanty, of short 

 elaters, faintly sculptured with spirals and often bearing rings, cogs or 

 warts, the apices blunt or with a minute apiculus; spores light yellow 

 or pallid, warted or reticulate. 



Since the direction of the spirals seems to be constant in the two 

 common species, and since the terms dextrorse and sinistrorse have not 

 always been used consistently, it will be well to explain that dextrorse 

 means winding clockwise toward the point of the elater and sinistrorse 

 the reverse. The threads of an ordinary screw are sinistrorse. This is 

 the sense preferred in Jackson's " Glossary of Botanic Terms." 



