292 THE MYXOMYCETES 



18. Trichia botrytis (Gmel.) Pers. 



Roemer N. Mag. Bot. 1 : 89. 1794. 

 PL XX, Figs. 521, 522. 



1791. Stemonitis botrytis Gmel., Syst. Nat. 2 : 1468. 



1799. Trichia serotina Schrad., Schrad. Jour. Bot. 5 : 67. 



1803. Splmrocarpus fragilis Sow., Engl. Fung. pi. 279. 



1837. Trichia lorinzeriana Corda, Icon. 1 : 23, fig. 228 D. 



1859. Trichia purpurascens NyL, Saellsk. Faun. FL Fenn. 4 : 126. 



1875. Trichia fragilis (Sow.) Rost., Mon. 246. 



1889. Trichia carlyleana Mass., Jour. R. Micr. Soc. 329. 



Sporangia gregarious, scattered, sometimes combined in clusters, 

 pyriform or turbinate, stipitate, red-purple or ochraceous brown, the 

 peridium breaking up irregularly, the dehiscence often prefigured by 

 pale reticulations on the surface; stipe solid, single or united in clusters 

 of five or more together, dark colored, red or purple-brown, opaque; 

 capillitium orange, ochraceous yellow, brick-red or reddish brown, 

 the threads simple or rarely branched, long-fusiform, about 4 fx thick 

 at the center, tapering gradually to the long acuminate, apiculate tips, 

 spirals three or four, even, smooth, rather closely wound and trace- 

 able almost to the apex; spores concolorous in mass, under the lens 

 pale, globose, minutely warted but not reticulate, 10-12 p. Plas- 

 modium typically purple-brown. 



Remarkable for its variations in color. More commonly the un- 

 opened sporangia are opaque brown, by reason of a dense outer wall, 

 and usually simple, or, if compound, show but two or three united. 

 The reddish phase, vinous or scarlet-black in color, is remarkably 

 fasciate. Some clusters show twenty or more stipitate, globose spo- 

 rangia, joined by their distinct but coherent stems. In such fruitings 

 the sporangia are small, 0.5 mm. In the brown sporangia the de- 

 hiscence, as stated, is often definitely prefigured; in the multiple, red 

 forms obscurely, if at all. As presented in collections from the eastern 

 United States, the two forms might well be disjoined. Persoon, how- 

 ever, discussed both together and so they remain. 



From the descriptions of the earlier authors it is impossible to dis- 

 tinguish this from Hemitrichia vesparium on the one hand, and T. de- 

 cipiens on the other. T. botrytis Pers. gives us first secure foothold. 

 Fries discards Persoon 's appellation as unsuitable and improperly 

 applied, and takes up what he deems an older specific designation, 

 Mucor pyriformis Leers. But Rostafinski is certain Leers had Ar- 

 cyria punicea in mind, and that other early names are equally ill ap- 

 plied. Rostafinski rejects Persoon 's names simply as not pertinent in 

 every case. 



