152 ENDOSPOREAE [COMATRICHA 



b. Spores minutely spinulose or nearly smooth, 6 to 10 jx 

 diam. — 



Sporangium-wall completely evanescent ; on leaves (on 

 wood in var. gracilis). 6. C. puchella 



Sporangium-wall persistent at the base as a membranous 

 cup attached to the capillitium on leaves. 



7. C. rubens 



1. C. nigra Schroeter in Colin Krypt. Fl. Schles., hi. pt. 1. 

 118 (1885). Plasmodium watery- white. Total height 1 to 

 6 mm. Sporangia globose, ellipsoid or cylindrical, stalked, 

 scattered or gregarious, about 0*6 mm. diam., purplish- 

 brown ; sporangium-wall evanescent. Stalk subulate, slender, 

 black, sliming ; in the globose form usually 2 to 6 times the 

 length of the sporangium, equalling the length of the sporan- 

 gium or shorter in the cylindrical form, rising from a more or 

 less distinct hypothallus. Columella reaching to half the height, 

 or nearly to the apex of the sporangium, branching above 

 and continued into the capillitium. Capillitium a more or 

 less dense tangle of purplish-brown threads, springing from all 

 parts of the columella, anastomosing and branching in semi- 

 circular curves ; of nearly equal thickness throughout, the 

 ultimate branches looped and showing few free ends but 

 often marked with short spine-like branchlets. Spores 

 brownish- violet, nearly smooth, or minutely and closely 

 spinulose, 7 to 11 /x diam. — Macbr. N. Am. Slime-Moulds, 128 ; 

 Sturgis hi Colorado Coll. Publ., Sci. Ser., xii. 33. Stemonitis 

 nigra Pers. in Gmel. Syst. Nat., 1467 (1791). S. atrofusca 

 Pers. in Roemer N. Mag. Bot., 91 (1794). S. reticulata 

 Trentep. in Roth Catal. Bot., i. 223 (1797) ? S. ovata 

 Pers. Syn., 189 (1801). S. globosa Schum. Enum. PI. Saell., ii. 

 217 (1803) ? S. obtusata Fr. Syst. Myc, hi. 160 (1829). S. 

 Friesiana de Bary in Rabenh. Fung. Eur., no. 568 (1863) ; 

 Mass. Mon., 82. 8. subcaespitosaMass. I.e., 80 (1892). Trichia 

 alba Sow. Engl. Fung., t. 259 (1803) (nomen). Comatricha 

 obtusata Preuss in Linnaea, xxiv. 141 (1851) ; Lister Myce- 

 tozoa, 117. C. Friesiana Rost. Mon., p. 199 (1875). ' C. 

 subcaespitosa Peck in Rep. N. York Mus., xliii. 25 (1890). 

 C. Persoonii Cel. fill. Myx. Bohm., 50, t. 2, f. 4, 5 ; Macbr. 

 I.e., 132, in part. 



Var. 1 .■ — alta Lister : sporangia oblong or cylindrical ; capil- 

 litium a tangle of long flexuose threads attached chiefly by 

 a few branches to the base of the columella. — C. alta Preuss 

 I.e., 141, and in Sturm Deutschl. Fl., Pilze, vi. 141, t. 71 (1862). 



