270 THE NORTH AMERICAN SLIME-MOULDS 



Trichia andersoni Rex carefully described by Morgan, Myx. Mi. 

 VaL, p. 38, belongs with this first group, four small species, the in- 

 conspicuous. To the present writer in each the structure seems dis- 

 tinct. In the herbarium a small bit of Anderson's material has rested 

 long; but it must not be lost to sight. The species is sure to be 

 taken again in the cool mountains, somewhere abundant; as these 

 stretch from Alberta to far Alaska. The capillitium is very even 

 the taeniae closely wound, the elater-ends often furcate. 



4. Trichia varia (Pers.) Rost. 



Plate IV., Figs. 3, 3 a, 3 *. 



1791. Stemonitis <varia Pers., Gmel., Syst. Nat., II., 1470. 



1794. Trichia varia Pers., Rom. Neu. Mag. Bot., I., p. 90. 



1829. Trichia varia (Pers.) Fries, Syst. Myc, III., p. 188. 



1875. Trichia varia (Pers.) Rost., Mon., p. 251. 



Sporangia gregarious or sometimes closely crowded, globose, obo- 

 void, or irregularly globoid, yellow^ish or ochraceous, shining, sessile, 

 or with a short black stipe; hypothallus none; capillitium of rather 

 long, simple, or more rarely branched elaters, 4-5 fi, wide, marked 

 by irregular spirals generally only two, prominent and narrow and 

 in places remote, the apices acute, about twice the elater diameter; 

 spore-mass yellow, spores by transmitted light dull yellow, 12-14 /x, 

 delicately verruculose, guttulate. 



A very common species, very variable in form, stipitate forms 

 occuring anon beside those which are irregular and sessile. According 

 to Rostafinski the stipitate phase constitutes the T. nigripes of Persoon 

 and other authors. The capillitium is, however, characteristic 

 throughout. The two spiral bands wind loosely and irregularly and 

 present an elater unlike anything else in the group except the same 

 structure in T. contorta, but here the elater is narrow and the sculp- 

 ture obscure. Since the specific distinctions are purely microscopic, 

 the synonymy beyond Rostafinski is mainly conjectural. It is possible 

 that Fries properly applied the name. 



Common. Maine to Oregon and California, and south to Arkan- 

 sas and Alabama. 



