COMATRICHA 181 



the polished stipe, the symmetrical capillitium, the soft purple-brown 

 tints, are remarkable, and enable one to recognize the form at sight. 



Specimens from Oregon are unusually fine; larger than usual, 

 reach 7 mm. total height, and when blown out present the tints of 

 violet in unusual clearness; var. C. pacifica. Plate XVIII., Figs. 13, 

 \Za, and \3b. 



New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois ; Oregon, Professor Peck. 



10. COMATRICHA TYPHOIDES (Bull.) Rost. 

 Plate VL, Figs. 1, 1 a. 1 b. 



1772. Mucor stemonitis ScopoH, Ft. Cam., II., pp. 493-494 (?). 



1774. Mucor stemonitis Schaeffer, Icones. Tab., CCXCVII (?). 



1780. Stemonitis typhina Wiggers, Prim. Fl. Hols., p. 116 (?). 



1791. Tricliia typboides BuUiard, Champ, de la France, p. 119, t. 477, II. 



1796. Stemonitis typhina Persoon, Myc. Obs., I., p. 57, in part. 



1805. Stemonitis typhoides (Bull.) D. C, Fl. Fr., p. 257. 



1829. Stemonitis typhoides (Bull.) Fr., Syst. Myc, III., p. 158. 



1873. Comatricha typhoides (Bull.) Rost., Vers., p. 7. 



1875. Comatricha typhina (Pers.) Rost., Mon., p. 197. 



1895. Comatricha stemonitis (Scop.) Sheldon, Minn. Bot. Stud., p. 473. 



1899. Comatricha stemonitis (Scop.) Sheld., Macbr., A''. A. S., p. 130. 



1911. Comatricha typhoides Rost., List., Mycetozoa, 2nd ed., p. 157. 



Sporangia gregarious, scattered, cylindric, erect, sometimes arcuate, 

 obtuse, 2-3 mm. high, at first silvery, then brown, as the peridium 

 vanishes, stipitate; stipe black, about one-half the total height or less; 

 hypothallus distinct, more or less continuous, reddish-brown ; colu- 

 mella tapering upward, black, attaining more or less completely the 

 apex of the sporangium; capillitium, arising as rather stout branches 

 of the capillitium, soon taking the form of slender, flexuous, brownish 

 threads, which by repeated anastomosing form at length a close net- 

 work, almost as in Stejnonitis, the free, ultimate branches very deli- 

 cate and short ; spore-mass dark brown ; spores by transmitted light, 

 pale, almost smooth, except for the presence of a few scattered but 

 very prominent umbo-like warts, of which four or five may be seen 

 at one time, 5-7.5 fx.. 



This is our most common North American species. It occurs 

 every\vhere on decaying wood, sometimes in remarkable quantity, 

 thousands of sporangia at a time. The Plasmodium, watery white in 



