ST EM ON IT IS 161 



close-meshed net; spores pale, dusky violet, usually beautifully spinu- 

 lose-reticulate, but sometimes warted or spir.ulose only, or nearly 

 smooth, 7-7.5 /x. 



As here set out the description is intended to include S. maxima 

 Schw. of the former edition. Rostafinski, Mon. I. c, describes S. 

 fusca Roth, as having "spores smooth." Since most American gath- 

 erings have reticulated spores, and since Schweinitz described a black 

 American species, his specific name seemed appropriate for all except 

 smooth-spored forms. 



In the meantime two things have happened ; Mr. Lister has exam- 

 ined the specimens remaining in the Strasburg herbarium and finds 

 them with reticulate spores. The statement quoted from the Mono- 

 graph evidently does not apply to all of Rostafinski's material ; but 

 under the circumstances the name fusca may easily take the field, 

 especially since another discovery makes for the same conclusion. 

 The evidence is good that S. maxima Schw. was indeed the largest, 

 i. e. perhaps, the tallest stemonitis he ever saw! probably, as his 

 scanty herbarium-remnant shows, S. fenestrata Rex! 



4. Stemonitis uvifera n. s. 



Plate XX., Figs. 8, 8 a, 8 ^, 8 c. 



Sporangia tufted, generally in medium-sized clusters much as in 

 S. fusca. The individual sporangium 7-9 mm. high, dark, slender, 

 brown, becoming dull black or pallid as the spores are lost, stipitate, 

 the stipe about one-fourth to one-third the total height, black pol- 

 ished shining; hypothallus distinct, common to all sporangia, purple- 

 brown, shining; columella distinct, attaining almost the summit of 

 the sporangium but inclined to waver a little at last, in other words, 

 flexuose toward the top, freely branching, the branches rather stout, 

 anastomosing to support the capillitial net ; the meshes larger, several 

 times the spore-diameter, the spores sooty-brown, distinctly warted or 

 spinulescent, about 7-8 /u, clustered in groups of four or more. 



Mt. Rainier, Washington, — 1914. 



5. Stemonitis dictyospora Rost. 



1873. Stemonitis dictyospora Rost., Mon., p. 195; Myc. Fen., pp. 114, 122. 

 1879. Stemonitis dictyospora Rost., Mass., Mon., p. 83(?). 



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