Siphoptychium. Amaurochaete. 89 



Siphoptychium Casparyi, Rost. (fig. 111.) 



Sporangia crowded on a well-developed hypothallus, elongated, 

 cylindrical or prismatic from mutual pressure, apices slightly 

 convex, wall thin, brownish, iridescent; mass of spores umber; 

 columella thin, reaching nearly or quite to apex of sporangium, 

 tubes of capillitium simple, rarely branched, springing from the 

 columella and extending to wall of sporangium; spores globose, 

 with a, minutely raised network, 7 9 /A diameter. 



Siphoptychium Casparyi, Host., Mon., Append., p. 32, fig. 245 ; 

 Sacc., Syll., vii., 1, n. 1423. 



Exsicc. Ellis and Everh., N. Amer. Fung., n. 2092. 



On wood, &c. United States. 



^Sporangia up to *5 cm. high, and about '5 mm. diameter of 

 equal height, and densely packed side by side, forming cake- 

 like aethalia, stated in letter from Dr. Rex, of Philadelphia, 

 who has collected this species in abundance, to average from 

 three to five inches in diameter ; but one aethalium collected in 

 the Adirondack Mountains, N. Y., measured one foot and a 

 half in length by one foot in width, with various prolongations 

 besides. 



AMAUROCHAETE, Rost. 



Aethalium consisting of numerous elongated, naked sporangia, 

 compacted together in several layers, and enclosed in a common 

 delicate cortex; the capillitium consists of several columella- 

 like, erect tubes springing from the base of the aethalium, and 

 anastomosing amongst themselves form tree-like branches, 

 which along with the secondary branches combine to form an 

 irregular network ; angles of the larger forks of the capillitium 

 connected for some distance by a thin web-like membrane. 



Amaurochaete, Rost., Mon., p. 210; Cke., Myx. Brit., p. 52; 

 Sacc., Syll., p. 401. 



Closely related to if indeed distinct from Ecticularia. 



Distrib. Europe; United States. Species 1. 



Amaurochaete atra, Rost. 

 Aethalium variable in size, pulvinate, covered with a thin, 



