B RE F ELD I A 155 



silver-shining hypothallus; sporangia in favorable cases distinct, indi- 

 cated above by the papillae; columellas obscure, black; capillitium 

 abundant, the threads uniting by multifid ends to surround as with a 

 net the peculiar vesicles; spore-mass dark violet-black, the individual 

 spores paler by transmitted light, distinctly papillose, 12-15 fi. 



A very remarkable species and one of the largest, rivalled by Fuligo 

 only. To be compared with Reticularia, which it resembles somewhat 

 externally, and with some of the larger specimens of Enteridium. 

 The Plasmodium at first white with a bluish tinge is developed abun- 

 dantly in rotten wood, preferably a large oak stump, and changes color 

 as maturity comes on, much in the fashion of Stemonitis splendens, 

 leaving a widespread hypothallic film to extend far around the per- 

 fected fruit-mass. In well-matured jethalia, "Jove favente," the spo- 

 rangia stand out perfectly distinct, particularly above and around the 

 margins. Closely and compactly crowded, they become prismatic by 

 mutual pressure, and attain sometimes the height of half an inch or 

 more. In the centre of the fructification, next the hypothallus, the 

 sporangia are very imperfectly differentiated. Many are here hori- 

 zontally placed, and perhaps supplied with an imperfectly formed 

 peridium, — if so are to be interpreted the lowest parts of the capil- 

 litial structure, the long, branching, ribbon-like strands which lie 

 along the hypothallus. Some of these branch repeatedly with flat 

 anastomosing branchlets, ultimately fray out into lengthened threads, 

 and perish after all the superstructure has been blown away. From 

 every part of the structure so described, but more especially from the 

 margins, are given of? in profusion the strange cystiferous threads, so 

 characteristic of this genus. These are exceeding delicate filaments, 

 attached at one end, it may be, to a principal branch, at the other free 

 or united to a second which again joins a third, and so looping and 

 branching, dividing, they form a more or less extended network, a 

 capillitium in which are entangled the myriad spores. Each filament 

 bears at its middle point (or is it the meeting-point of two?) a pecu- 

 liar plexus which embraces several large cysts or vesicles whose func- 

 tion or further homology does not readily appear. 



From the base of the fructification rise also ascending branches 

 which are black, terete, and not infrequently branched as if to form 



