482 W. C Stitrgis — Type-SpefAmens of Myxortxycetes. 



Ehr. The reason for so fundamental a difference of opinion is seen 

 when we examine the actual specimens. I have before me an authen- 

 tic specimen of S. ferruginea, Ehr., received from Mr, Lister ; the 

 type-specimen of S. herhatica, Pk. ; and a large number of specimens 

 of the latter, most of them collected in this country and examined 

 by Mr. Lister, one of them collected in England by Mr. Lister him- 

 self. The type-specimen of S. herhatica, Pk. has the sporangia densely 

 aggregated, forming a tuft on grass ; they measure e-V™" in height. 

 I can distinguish no difference, in the color of the spore-mass or of the 

 individual spores, between this and the specimen of S.ferruginea, Ehr. 

 The habit of the two is also identical. The English gathering of 

 8. herhatica, Pk., has distinctly darker spores of a purplish tinge, 

 whether examined in the mass or shed upon white paper. All of the 

 other specimens are in the form of loose tufts, 10'"'" high, growing 

 on dead wood. The spores in the mass have the light greyish-violet 

 color of the type, neither as purplish as those of S. splendens, Rost., 

 nor as ferruginous as those of S. Smithii, Macbr. For my own part, 

 and judging merely by the specimens in mj possession, I cannot with 

 any certainty distinguish between S. herhatica, Pk., and S. ferru- 

 ginea, Ehr. 



The same conclusion is reached by Macbride, who, however, unites 

 both species under the name IStemonitis axifera, (Bull ) Macbr. 

 Expediency and established usage would alike seem to render inad- 

 visable the adoption of Bulliard's name, even if his description and 

 figures referred with certainty to the species under consideration. 

 They apply quite as well, if not better, to the form now known as 

 S. Smithii, Macbr. 



COMATRICHA SUBC.ESPITOSA, Pk., Rcp. XLIII, p. 71, PI. Ill, ^ 



figs. 6-9, 1890. ! 

 CoMATRiCHA LONGA, Pk., Rep. XLIII, p. 70, PI. Ill, j 



figs. 1-5, 1890. J 

 The type-specimen of neither of these species is at present acces" 

 sible. Comatricha suhccespitosa, Pk. is placed by Lister under 

 C. ohtusata, Pr., on the basis of a slide-mounting of the type, fur- 

 nished by Rex. (Lister, Mon. p. 118.) Macbride rejects the 

 name C. ohtusata, Pr., on the ground that the figure of that species 

 given in Sturm's Deutsch. Fl., PI. LXX, is rather that of Enerthenema, 

 and substitutes the name C. nigra, (Pers.) Schrt. I am inclined to 

 agree with Professor Macbride in regarding both the description and 

 the figures of Preuss' species as referable to Enerthenema. If 

 this be correct, and if we proceed on the principle of the 



