154 ENDOSPOREAE [COMATRICHA 



This robust species is closely allied to C. nigra, with which it is 

 connected by intermediate forms. Prof. Macbride finds that the 

 distinguishing characters are well retained in repeated gatherings from 

 the Western States of America. C. Suksdorfii has also been obtained 

 from the Swiss Alps. 



Hob. On dead wood. — Furstenalp, Switzerland (B.M. slide) ; 

 Colorado (B.M. 2590). 



3. C. laxa Rost. Mon., p. 201 (1875). Plasmodium watery- 

 white. Total height, 1*5 to 3*5 mm. Sporangia subglobose 

 or shortly cylindrical, obtuse, scattered or gregarious. Stalk 

 black, shining, often stout, 0-2 to 0*6 mm. long. Columella 

 reaching nearly to the apex of the sporangium, narrowed 

 upwards. Capillitium usually lax, the primary threads 

 springing somewhat distantly from all parts of the columella, 

 at first straight or slightly curved, branching towards the 

 surface to form a loose network of slender threads, either 

 looped or with numerous straight free ends. Spores as in 

 C. nigra. — Macbr. N. Am. Slime-Moulds, 127. Stemonitis laxa 

 Mass. Mon., 79. Badhamia penetralis Cooke & Ellis in Grev., 

 v. 49 (1876) ? Lamproderma Ellisiana Cooke in Ann. Lye. 

 Nat. Hist. N. York, xi. 397 (1877) ? Comatricha macrosperma 

 Racib. in Rozpr. Mat. Przyr. Akad. Krak., xii. 76 (1884). 

 C. Ellisiana EUis & Everh. N. Am. Fung., ser. 2, no. 2696 

 (1891). C . Sommerfeltii Blytt in Bidr. K. Norg., Sop. hi. 8 

 (1892). C. Ellisii Morg. Myx. Miami Valley, 49 (1894). 



PI. 124. — a. b. c. sporangia of various shapes (England) ; d. three sporangia showing 

 capillitium ; e. capillitium ; /. g. spores. 



Intermediate forms connect this species with C. nigra, of which 

 it is hardly more than a marked variety. The type in the Strassburg 

 collection is well rendered by the photographic figure in Rostafinski's 

 Monograph ; it is a globose form with coarse and lax capillitium. A 

 similar form is found at Lyme Regis, together with growths having 

 more elongated sporangia ; among these there occur forms which 

 are identical with C. Ellisiana Ellis & Everh. (B.M. 1800). C. Sommer- 

 feltii Blytt has the lax capillitium of Rostafinski's type of C. laxa, 

 but has larger spores, 11 to 14 /a diam. ; the size of the spores, which 

 in other respects resemble those of C. laxa, can scarcely support a 

 separate specific rank being given to this gathering. I am indebted 

 to Prof. Blytt for kindly submitting the type of C. Sommerfeltii for 

 examination. 



Lamproderma Ellisiana Cooke, is described as having spherical 

 sporangia on subulate stalks, slender forking blackish-purple capil- 

 litium-threads radiating from the apex of the short columella, and pale 

 lilac spores measuring 15 to 16 fi, grouped in clusters of five to six. 

 Xothing now remains of the type from New Jersey (K. 614) but a few 

 naked stalks ; and whether the specimen was in part a Lamproderma 

 as Massee regards it (Mon., 98), or a form of Comatricha laxa with 

 spherical sporangia — the same form in fact as Comatricha Ellisiana, 

 of which L. Ellisiana is quoted as a synonym by Ellis & Everhardt — 

 cannot now be determined. 



