168 THE NORTH AMERICAN SLIME-MOULDS 



concerns the type, of course, unknown. In one or two gatherings 

 referred here the color of the Plasmodium was noted greenish-yellow. 

 This has the look of S. flavogenita; but small spores and delicate 

 make-up take it the other way. Miss Lister makes it varietal to No. 

 12, next following. 



12. Stemonitis axifera (Bull.) Macbr. 

 Plate VI., 5, 5 a, and 5 b. 



1791. Trichia axifera ferruginea Bull., Champ, de la Fr., p. 118, tab. 477. 

 1818. Stemonitis ferruginea Ehr., Syl. Myc. Berol., p. 20; et auct. Europ. 

 ex parte; Americ, non. 



1894. Stemonitis ferruginea Ehr., List., Mycetozoa, p. 115, in part. 

 1899. Stemonitis axifera (Bull.) Macbr., A''. A. S., p. 120, in part. 

 1911. Stemonitis ferruginea Ehr., Lister, Mycetozoa, 2nd ed. 



Sporangia terete, acuminate, fasciculate small in dense clusters, 

 distinctly ferruginous in color, stipitate, from 10-15 mm. in height; 

 the stipe black one-third to one-half the total height, not shining or 

 polished ; columella evenly branching, dissipated before reaching the 

 acuminate apex; capillitium-branches clear brown anastomosing and 

 dividing more or less to bear the superficial fine-meshed net; spores 

 pallid, faintly ferruginous, smooth or nearly so, 5—6 /x. 



This would seem to be the common ferruginous species of the 

 world. Doubtless Micheli had the thing before him when he drew 

 Tab. 94, clathroidastrum, Hofifman and Jacquin seem to have recog- 

 nized the form. To be sure, under the present plasmodic limitations 

 we cannot be quite certain about these references. Not until 1791 

 does anyone write down a particular species as marked by a white 

 Plasmodium, and distinguish it from other similar fructifications hav- 

 ing similar origin. Bulliard, /. c, does this, discriminating between 

 T. axifera ferruginea and C. typhoides; see under the last-named 

 species. Youthful Ehrenberg, in his doctor's thesis, nearly thirty 

 years later, draws a similar parallel but ignores the great French 

 author, writing S. ferruginea Ehr. as though the thing had never 

 been seen before! By this name it has been called until very lately; 

 Fries accepting it, but noting that the Plasmodium, for him at least, 

 was yellow! 



In 1904 Dr. E. Jahn, following Fries' suggestion, established the 

 fact that Ehrenberg's white-plasmodic species had small spores, that 



