STEMONITIS 165 



small meshes, pretty uniform in size, and presenting very few small, 

 inconspicuous peridial processes; spores brown, very minutely warted, 

 about 8 fjL. 



This elegant species occurs not rarely on rotten wood, usually in 

 protected situations, although sometimes on the exposed surfaces of 

 its habitat. The sporangia attain with us unusual height, sometimes 

 2 cm. ; Plasmodia, 6-8 cm., in diameter. The clear brown tufts ap- 

 pear in the autumn, marvels of graceful elegance and beauty ; at sight 

 easily recognizable by the large size and rich color. In Iowa it is 

 almost universally present on fallen stems of Acer saccharinum Linn., 

 and it appears to be widely distributed, by far the most beautiful of 

 all this beautiful series. 



New England to Iowa, South Dakota, Washington, and British 

 Columbia. Professor Shimek brings a dusky phase from Nicaragua! 

 — the type ? 



The Plasmodium is white on maple stems, more creamy on stems of 

 linden, on which wood it is more rarely found : occasionally on ash- 

 stumps; even on the fallen bark of trees preferred. 



In 1875 in his famous Monograph, Rostafinski set out three species 

 with "dusky violet spores". These are his Nos. 94, 95 and 96. 



The first one of these he calls S. fusca, "spore-mass, etc., violet- 

 black, individual spore clear violet, smooth, 7-9 fi." 



The second species he writes down S. dictyospora, "hypothallus, 

 stalk, columella, capillitium and spore-mass, violet-black, spore netted 

 and fringed, clear-violet, 7-9 /x." 



The third species is S. splendens, "hypothallus stalk, columella and 

 spore-mass violet-black, spore smooth, clear-violet, 7-8 /i." 



It will be observed that in color down to color of the spore by 

 transmitted light, the three species are exactly the same; constitute a 

 suite, so to say. It has since turned out, as noted under our No. 3, 

 that the spores of S. fusca are netted. Error in description here is 

 not surprising ; the reticulations are sometimes faint. In S. dictyo- 

 spora they are admittedly strong, and the inference was that the 

 'gladkie' spores of the third species might be netted also. This is no 

 criticism: lenses were fifty years since not nearly so good for such 

 discoveries as the oil-immersion is now. 



