State Museum of Natural History. 71 



peridia narrowly cylmdrical, f^enerally elongated, six to twenty lines 

 long, often flexuous, very fugacious, grayish-black; capillitium rising 

 from the columella, its branches generally somewhat reticulately con- 

 nected near their bae and forming a few large meshes, externally 

 divided into slender, sharp-pointed, divergent, spme-like branchlets, 

 with free apices, blackish; spores globose, even, .0003 to .00035 in. 

 in diameter. 



Bark of willow, Sallx Bahylonica. Flatbush. September. Rev. J. 

 L. Zabriskie. 



In the color of the spores and capillitium as seen in mass this plant 

 resembles Stemonitis fusca. In size also it equals or exceeds that 

 species. But in the character of the capillitium it is quite peculiar. 

 Sometimes its branches, which grow in an alternate manner from the 

 sides of the columella, are two or three times forked and entirely free, 

 but usually they are somewhat connected with each other near the 

 columella, but have their ultimate ramuli wholly free. By this char- 

 acter it differs considerably from other species of the genus, but 

 scarcely enough, it seems to me, to warrant its generic separation. 

 The columella generally passes through the capillitium nearly or 

 quite to its apex, but sometimes in very long specimens it is lost 

 above in the few large meshes. Fine specimens of this remarkable 

 species have been sent me from Philadelphia, Pa., where it is not 

 rare, by Messrs. Steveusoi^, Eex and Wingate. Specimens from the 

 last gentleman are quite two inches long. 



Comatricha subceespitosa, n. sp. 



[Plates. Figs. 6 to 9.] 



Stems subcffispitose or loosely clustered, thickened at the base, 

 black, about half the length of the sporangia, extending through the 

 capillitium as a columella; peridia ovate-oblong, obtuse, fugacious; 

 capillitium growing from the columella, reticulately connected and 

 also forming a superficial net with coarse meshes, blackish; spores 

 globose, even, blackish-brown, .0004 to .00045 in. in: diameter. 



Decorticated wood of hemlock, Tsuga Canadensis. Sandlake. July. 



^his species resembles Stemonitis fusca in color. In size it 

 approaches Comatricha typhina. Its capillitium is variously connected, 

 and appears to combine the reticulation of Comatricha and Stemo- 

 nitis, but on account of the net work not being wholly parallel to the 

 walls of the peridium it is placed in Comatricha. The plants are 

 mostly collected in small groups or loose clusters of two to ten indi- 

 viduals. Its coarser meshes and larger spores distinguish it from C. 

 typhina. 



