COMA T RICH A 175 



ponent sporangia 5-10 mm. in length. The early appearance is 

 much like that of a species of Stemonitis, but the mature stage is a 

 great mass of spores with scanty capillitium, as in Reticularia; the 

 columellas, however, are genuine and not adjacent portions of wall 

 grown together." — Professor Morgan. 



Professor Morgan's herbarium material is at hand for study. It 

 meets his description, needless to say, very generally. In what re- 

 mains of the type the membranous connections are obscure ; in fact the 

 relation of such peridial ( ?) fragments to the capillitium in any way, 

 is no longer evident. But in any event the colony does not impress 

 one as something prematurely or improperly developed, a stemonitis 

 gone begging ; — nothing of that kind ; it is clearly a comatricha, easily 

 identifiable with no trace of a surface net but, with long free tips 

 in plenty. 



Misled no doubt, by the peridial fragments referred to, Mr. Lister 

 in Mycetozoa, I. c, associated this with S. confluens Cke. & Ell., but 

 entered it as a variety of S. splendens Rost., just the same. In the 

 second edition of the Monograph j Ellis' species is set out, but Mor- 

 gan's retains the old position. 



In light of present knowledge, the relationship suggested would be 

 difficult of proof. If C. flaccida Morgan be related to the splendens 

 group at all, it must be with the form known as S. webberi Rex., 

 but it dififers from this in almost every particular. It has no net, with 

 meshes uniform or diverse; it is clear brown in color, with a tinge 

 of red, beneath the lens ; the spores are smaller, distinctly warted and 

 with the reddish tinge of the capillitium; and in short, it seems to 

 be a comatricha and not a stemonitis. 



Specimens from western Washington dififer in some particulars 

 but are apparently the same thing. 



Ohio, Kentucky, Washington, California; not common. 



4. Comatricha longa Peck. 



Plate VI., Figs. 2, 2 a, 2 b. 

 1890. Comatricha longa Peck, Rep. N. Y. Mus., XLIII., p. 24. 



Sporangia crowded in depressed masses or tufts, black, long, cylin- 

 dric, even, stipitate; stipe black, shining, generally very short; hypo- 



