DIACHJEA 185 



15. COMATRICHA SUBCAESPITOSA Peek. 



Plate XII., Figs. 17, 17 a. 

 1890. Comatricha subcaespitosa Peck, N. Y. Mus. Rep. 43, p. 25. 



Sporangia scattered or sometimes in loose clusters, cylindric, obtuse, 

 about 1.5—2 mm., dark brown, stipitate; stipe short, one-fifth total 

 height; hypothallus minute; capillitium regular, the branching quite 

 uniform parallel, flexuous, brown with a tinge of violet, not dense; 

 columella well-defined, almost percurrent ; spores brown in mass, 

 under lens dusky, nearly smooth, 9-10 fi. , 



The larger spores, regular, erect form, and clustered habit separate 

 this form from others with which it will be naturally associated. See 

 page 283 under Addenda. 



4. Diachsea Fries 

 1825. Diachaea Fries, Syst. Orb. Veg., I., p. 143.^ 



Sporangia distinct, globose or cylindric, the peridium thin, irides- 

 cent, stipitate; the stipe and columella surcharged with lime, white 

 or yellowish, rigid, thick, tapering upward ; capillitium of delicate 

 threads free from lime, radiating from various points on the colu- 

 mella, branching and anastomosing as in Comatricha to form a more 

 or less intricate network, the ultimate branchlets supporting the 

 peridial wall. 



Rostafinski placed this genus near the Didymieae on account of the 

 calcareous columella and the non-calcareous capillitium. On the 

 other hand the structure of the capillitium and the iridescent simple 

 peridium ally Diachaea to Larnproderma and the Stemoniteae; the 

 only distinction being the calcareous stem. It is simply an inter- 

 mediate genus to be placed here more conveniently than anywhere 

 else in what is of necessity a linear arrangement. 



Key to the Species of Diachaea 



A. Stipe and columella white. 



a. Sporangium cylindric \. D. leucopodia 



^ It had seemed less necessary to retain the classic orthography in this in- 

 stance since De Bary and Rostafinski both use Diachea. But modern scholar- 

 ship is nothing if not meticulous; it is the fashion in Latin still to keep the 

 digraph, even to the vexation of all men. In the same way when Bulliard 

 wrote leucopodia, 'white stockings', he doubtless meant to be exact. 



