300 THE MYXOMYCETES 



ring-shaped or crescentic thickenings, the outer portion composed of 

 scattered deposits of brown refuse matter; stalk dark brown or black, 

 0.1-0.3 mm. tall; capillitium a tangle of sparingly branched, smooth, 

 yellow threads, 3-4 /x wide, with few or many, round or pointed free 

 ends, marked with three to six often faint spiral bands; spores yellow 

 or olivaceous, minutely warted, 9-13 ju. 



Europe, Ceylon. Brandza says America, but no collections are 

 known to us from either North or South America. 



10. Hemitrichia vesparium {Batsch) Macbr. 



N. A. Slime-Moulds 203. 1899. 

 PL XX, Figs. 533, 534, 535. 



1786. Lycoperdon vesparium Batsch, Elench. Fung. Cont. 1 : 253, fig. 172. 



1790. Trichia pyriformis Hoffm., Veg. Crypt. 2 : 1, pi. 1, fig. 1. 



1791. Stemonitis vesparia (Batsch) Gmel., Syst. Nat. 2 : 1470. 



1792. Trichia fragiformis With., Br. PL ed. 2. 3 : 480. 

 1794. Trichia rubiformis Pers., Roem. N. Mag. Bot. 1 : 89. 

 1826. Trichia chalybea Chev., Fl. Paris 1 : 323. 



1837. Trichia neesiana Corda, Icon. 1 : 23. 



1850. Trichia ayresii Berk. & Br., Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. II. 5 : 367. 



1875. Hemiarcyria rubiformis (Pers.) Rost., Mon. 262. 



1892. Arcyria rubiformis (Pers.) Massee, Mon. 158. 



1894. Hemitrichia rubiformis (Pers.) List., Mycetozoa 175. 



Sporangia clustered or crowded, rarely single, clavate or subcy- 

 lindrical, 1-1.3 mm. tall, 0.5-0.7 mm. in diameter, stipitate or occa- 

 sionally sessile, dark wine red or red-black in color, the peridium in 

 perfect specimens glossy or shining metallic, opaque; stipes solid, 

 usually blent together, concolorous; capillitium of intertwisted threads, 

 5-6 [x in diameter, sparingly branched, marked by three or four spiral 

 ridges, abundantly spinulose, the free tips acuminate, terminating in 

 a spine, the whole mass dull red. Spore-mass brownish red; spores by 

 transmitted light reddish orange, warted, subglobose, 10-12 /jl. 



A most common species, on rotten wood everywhere, especially in 

 forests. Recognized generally at sight by its color and fasciculate 

 habit. The peridium often shows a tendency to circumscissile dehis- 

 cence, and persists long after the contents have been dissipated, in 

 this condition suggesting the name applied by Batsch, vesparium, 

 wasp nest. The capillitium is remarkably spinescent, the branching 

 of the threads rare. Rostafinski describes the spores as smooth; they 

 are usually distinctly warted. The Plasmodium is deep red, and a 

 plasmodiocarpous fructification occasionally appears. 



New England to Ontario, Washington and Oregon, south to the 

 West Indies, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Brazil. Cosmopolitan. 



