RETICVLARIA 209 



simple threads, attaching above by delicate tips, below by a broader 

 sometimes branching base, sometimes conjoined near the peridial wall, 

 now and then at irregular intervals inflated slightly or anon bulbose, 

 roughened by projecting spinules, one-third the diameter, brownish or 

 yellow; spores reddish-brown, faintly marked by reticulating bands 

 over large part of the surface, 5-5.5 /x. 



This peculiar species looks at first very little like a myxomycete. 

 The stiff projecting hairs of the capillitium are hyphal in appearance 

 and under the lens recall the phycomycetes ; but the spores and withal 

 the general structure seem to claim recognition here. Rostafinski was 

 inclined to make a trichia of it, because of the hair-like capillitium, 

 and markings on the threads, Massee found indistinct spiral markings 

 even, enough to suit at least the prototrichias. Mr. Lister would put 

 it near the tubifers. Father Torrend thinks of the dianemas, mar- 

 garitas, etc., because of simple capillitium attached above and below! 

 Spore-characters are probably the index most reliable, and the partial 

 reticulation suggests association with Tubtfera and for the present 

 it may find station there, as in the English monograph. 



Rare. Collected three times: twice in Ceylon, once in Jamaica. 

 By the courtesy of Dr. Farlow, late lamented, we record the western 

 specimens. 



D. RETICULARIACE.E 



Fructification aethalioid ; the sporangia sometimes poorly defined, 

 intricately associated, borne on a common hypothallus and covered 

 above by a common cortex; the lateral walls variously perforate and 

 incomplete, form a pseudo-capillitium ; spores umber or ochraceous. 



Key to the Genera of the Reticulariaceee 



A. Spores umber. 



a. Sporangia wholly indeterminate, their walls much consolidated 



below, fraying out above into long, slender threads, 



1. Reticularia 



b. Sporangia bounded, more or less distinctly, by broad perforate 



plates throughout 2. Enteridium 



B. Spores ochraceous 3. DiCTYDii^THALiUM 



1. Reticularia (Bull.) Rost. 



1791. Reticularia Bulliard, Champ, de la France, p. 95, in part. 

 1873. Reticularia (Bulliard) Rost., Versuch, p. 6. 



15 



