Enerthenema. 105 



A well-marked genus, characterized by the capillitium 

 originating solely from the peltate, flattened apex of the colu- 

 mella; capillitium dense, threads coloured, thin, sub-equal, 

 branching in a dichotomous or irregular manner, main branches 

 frequently connected by transverse bars, tips free ; that is, not 

 combined into a net, but evidently in many instances showing 

 indications of having originally been attached to the inside of 

 the evanescent sporangial wall. Connected with the typical 

 structure met with in the Columelliferae by Raunkier's genus 

 Ancyrophorus, which agrees with Enerthenema in having the 

 columella dilated at the apex, but the capillitium originates 

 from the columella throughout its length as well as from the 

 disc, and the tips of the "threads are not so decidedly free from 

 anastomosing as in the present genus. 



Distrib. Europe ; United States ; New Granada. Sp. 3. 



Enerthenema elegans, Bowm. (figs. 302 304). 



Sporangia globose, with usually a minute apical umbo, wall 

 very thin, brownish, iridescent, fugitive ; stem thick, conical, 

 blackish-brown, opaque, continuing as a thin columella quite 

 through the sporangium and supporting the pendulous capil- 

 litium from its apical disc, threads of capillitium brown, siib-equal, 

 2'5 3 fj. thick, often minutely and irregularly nodulose ; spores 

 globose, free from the first, very indistinctly verruculose, 8 10 p 

 diameter. 



Enerthenema elegans, Bowman, Linn. Trans. (1828), xvi., 

 p. 151, t. 16 ; Rost, MOD., p. 209, figs. 45, 48, 49, 52, 57. 



Enerthenema papillata, Rost., Hon., App., p. 28 ; Cooke, Brit. 

 Myx., p. 51, figs. 45, 48, 49, 52, 57; Sacc., Syll., no. 1378; 

 Raunk., Myx. Dan., p. 92, t. 5, f. 7. 



Britain (Wothorpe, Carlisle, Edinburgh) ; Germany ; Finland ; 

 United States. 



On wood and bark. From 1*5 to 2 mm. high, wall of spor- 

 angium disappearing very early, hence the plant is usually 

 met with having the capillitium streaming from the discoid 

 apex of the columella. 



