258 THE NORTH AMERICAN SLIME-MOULDS 



D. PROTOTRICHIACE^ 

 A single genus, — 



Prototrlchia Rost. 

 1876. PrototrUhia Rost, Mon. App., p. 38. 

 A single species, — 

 1. Prototrichia metallica {Berk.) Mass. 



Plate XVIIL, Figs. 12, 12 a, 12 b. 



1860. Trichia metallica Berk. Hook., Fl. Tasm., 2, p. 168. 



1866. Trichia flag ellif era Berk. & Br., Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 3, XVII., 

 p. 56. 



1876. Prototrichia flag ellif era (Berk.) Rost. Mon. App., p. 38. 



1894. Prototrichia flag ellif era Rost., List., Mycet. 2nd ed., p. 206. 



1899. Prototrichia flagellifera (Berk. & Br.) Rost,, Macbr., A^. A. S., p. 199. 



1892. Prototrichia metallica Mass., Mon., p. 127. 



1911. Prototrichia metallica Mass., List., Mycet., 2nd ed., p. 260. 



Sporangia sessile, scattered or sometimes crowded, brown, some- 

 times with a rosy tinge, about 1 mm. in diameter; peridium a thin, 

 transparent, iridescent membrane, bearing in its inner surface the 

 distal attachments of the capillitial threads; capillitium of numerous 

 brown, spirally banded threads, which take origin in the base of the 

 sporangium, become subdivided as they ascend, and are at length 

 attached by their tips to the sporangium wall ; spore-mass brown, 

 spores by transmitted light pale, minutely roughened. 



This curious form, with its spirally sculptured capillitial threads 

 attached at both ends, stands intermediate between Dianema and 

 Hemitrichia and Trichia. Berkeley called it a trichia, ignoring the 

 attachment of the threads. Cooke notes this as sufficient to exclude 

 the form from the genus. But it remained for Rostafinski to make the 

 transfer by setting up for its reception the genus now adopted. He 

 preferred the later (1866) specific name as more descriptive. Miss 

 Lister reverts to the earlier name with the remark; "Little now re- 

 mains of the type Prototrichia metallica Berk, from Tasmania; but 

 the specimen is referred to Prototrichia flagellifera by Rostafinski who 

 saw it in good condition." 



Not uncommon in the abietine forests of the West. Alberta, Ore- 

 gon, Washington, California, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Colorado. 



