194 ENDOSPOREAE [ALWISIA 



persistent below, pale red, beset with minute scattered granules 

 on the inner side, and occasionally produced into small pouches. 

 Stalks cylindrical, 2*5 mm. high, 0*15 mm. thick, adhering 

 in clusters of 4 to 12, brownish-purple ; when mounted in gly- 

 cerine, orange-red. Capillitium consisting of slender straight 

 and nearly simple tubular threads 0-5 to 0*8 mm. long, 3 to 8 fx 

 wide, attached above by slender points to the fugaceous apical 

 sporangium- wall, and also below to the interior of the cup-like 

 base of the sporangium, where they often branch and anasto- 

 mose ; they may be interrupted by bulbous swellings 20 to 

 40 jx long, and are either smooth or closely studded with 

 slender spines 2 to 3 fi in length. Spores pale reddish-brown, 

 reticulated over two-thirds their surface, 5 to 6 //, diam. — 

 Lister in Journ. Bot.,xlii. 135; Fischer inMitth. Naturf. Ges. 

 Bern., 1906, 121, figs. 11-14 (1907). Trichia fragilis Rost. 

 Mon. App., p. 39, in part. Prototrichia Bombarda Mass. 

 Mon., 128 (1892). 



PI. 151. — a. three clusters of sporangia (Ceylon) ; b. cluster of sporangia, the upper 

 walls have broken away exposing the capillitium threads (Jamaica) ; c. group of 

 capillitium threads attached above and below to the sporangium-walls : d. upper ends 

 of three threads of capillitium, and spores ; e. lower ends of capillitium threads showing 

 attachment to the sporangium-wall ; /. part of capillitium-thread and spores. 



On maturity the cup of the sporangium splits into reflexed lobes 

 bearing the persistent threads of the capillitium in the form of a diffuse 

 tuft. The type of this remarkable species is an immature gathering 

 made by Thwaites in Ceylon in 1868 ; since then it has been obtained 

 again in that island by Mr. Petch in a mature state (see Petch in 

 Ann. Perad., iv. 357) ; it has also been found in Sumatra, and in the 

 Blue Mountains, Jamaica. Although differing from the other species 

 of the Tubulinaceae in the mode of dehiscence and in the capillitium, 

 it agrees with them completely in the colour and structure of the 

 sporangium- wall and in the character of the spores. 



Hab. On dead wood.— Gongolla Forest, Ceylon (B.M. 1000) ; 

 Jamaica (B.M. 2807). 



Order IV. — Reticulariaceae. 



Sporangia closely compacted and usually forming an 

 aethalium ; sporangium- walls without plasmodic granules, 

 usually incomplete, perforated, or forming a spurious 

 capillitium ; true capillitium none, or in Liceopsis consisting 

 of a few branching threads and strands. 



KEY TO THE GENERA OF RETICULARIACEAE. 



A. Sporangia forming aethalia* : — 



Sporangia columnar ; sporangium-walls incomplete, dome- 

 shaped at the apex, continued down to the base in four 

 to six straight threads. 



(33) Dictydiaethalium. 



*Sporangia forming elongated or net-like plasmodiocarps in Enteridiu.n olivaceum v. 

 li i aides. 



