Arcyria. 159 



and sessile on a hypothallus, rarely an irregular plasmodiocarp, 

 brown or almost black, polished and with a metallic lustre or 

 opaque ; mass of capillitium and spores orange-broicn ; threads 

 of capillitium orange-brown, 8 9 /A thick, combined into a 

 dense elastic net, which at maturity elongates considerably, 

 carrying the apical portion of the sporangium at its apex, 

 where it remains in the form of a cap, free tips numerous, 

 usually terminated by from one to three short, smooth spines, 

 rarely obtuse, spirals rather distant, furnished with numerous 

 slender spines ; spores globose, very minutely verruculose, 10 12 fj, 

 diameter. 



a. genuina; sporangia cylindrico-turbinate, dark-brown, 

 opaque, or with a steel lustre, seated on a common fasciculate 

 stem. 



/3. sessilis; sporangia sessile, cylindrical or sub-angular from 

 mutual pressure. 



y. plasmodiocarpa ; irregular, attached by a broad base to a 

 hypothallus. 



Hemiarcyria rubiformis, Host, Mon., p. 262; figs. 201, 230, 

 231; Cooke, Myx. Brit., figs. 201, 230, 231; Schroeter, p. 114; 

 Sacc., Syll., vii., n. 1512; Kaunk., Myx. Dan., p. 63, t. 3, f. 15, 

 t, 4, f. 6 ; Mass., Kev. Trich., p. 353, fig. 31 (in part). 



Exsicc Roum., Fung. Gall., 1686 ; Fckl., Fung. Rhen., 1438 

 (as Trichia rubiformis); Cooke, Fung. Brit., 612 (as Trichia 

 Neesiana); Jack, Leiner u. Sitz. Krypt. Bad., 421 (as Trichia 

 rubiformis) ; Sacc., Myc. Ven., 962 (as Trichia pyriformis) ; 

 Hemiarcyria Ellisii, Mass., Rev. Trich., p. 354, f. 30; Karst., 

 Fung. Fenn., 700. 



A widespread and very beautiful species, characterized by the 

 cylindrical or obovate-oblong, brown, fasciculate sporangia, fre- 

 quently exhibiting metallic tints, and the dense orange-brown 

 capillitium of spinulose threads. The spores vary in marking 

 when magnified 1200 diameters from being almost perfectly 

 smooth, to minutely but distinctly warted. 



On rotten wood, moss, &c. Britain (Apethorpe, "Weybridge, 

 Twycross, Birmingham, Bulmer, N. Yorks; Orton Wood, 

 Leicester ; Wothorpe, Scarboro', Carlisle) ; France ; Germany ; 



