COMATRICHA 177 



Generally, though not always, found growing in the crevices of the 

 bark on fallen logs of various deciduous trees. September. Not 

 common. 



This is thought to be C. crypta Schw., N. A. F., 2351; but the 

 description under that number does not make clear what form 

 Schweinitz had before him, the present species or C. longa, and the 

 herbarium specimen of Schweinitz is "utterly lost" ; the later specific 

 name is accordingly adopted. 



New England west to the Cascade Mountains ; south to Kansas 

 and Texas. 



6. COMATRICHA LAXA Rostofinski. 



Plate V., Figs. 5, 5 a. 



1875. Comatricha laxa Rost., Mon., p. 201. 



1877. Lamproderma ellisiana Cooke, Myx. U. S., p. 397. 



1891. Comatricha ellisiana (Cooke) Ell. & Ev., N. A. F., 2696. 



Sporangia scattered, gregarious, sub-globose or short cylindric, and 

 obtuse, dusky stipitate; stipe short, black, tapering rapidly upward 

 from an expanded base; hypothallus scant or none; columella erect, 

 rigid, sometimes reaching nearly to the apex of the sporangium, some- 

 times dichotomously branched a little below the summit, before 

 blending into the common capillitium; capillitium lax, of slender, 

 horizontal branches, anastomosing at infrequent intervals and ending 

 in short, free tips; spores pallid, nearly smooth, 7-9.5 fi. 



A very minute, delicate little species, about 1^ mm. high; the 

 stipe half the total height. In general appearance the shorter forms 

 of the species resemble slightly C. nigra, but are distinguished by a 

 much shorter stipe and much more open capillitium. The sporangia 

 of C. nigra mounted on long capillary stipes always droops more or 

 less; the sporangia of the present species stand rigidly erect. The 

 sporangia vary in form and in the branching of the columella. In 

 the more globose phases, the columella almost always shows a peculiar 

 dichotomy near the apex; in the cylindric types, this peculiar division 

 fails.i In fact, the shape is determined chiefly by the mode of branch- 

 ing as aflFects the columella. Rostafinski's figure, on Tab. XIII, does 



^ See Addenda, d, p. 282 following. 



13 



