IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 25 



be here for the first time reported from this country. I have, 

 however, good specimens from a single collection in Iowa made 

 many years ago. The form is so peculiar that I do not believe 

 it likely to be mistaken for anything else. It must simply be 

 put down as rare. 



8. Diderma laciniatum Phillips. 



Fairly good specimens of what is believed to be this species 

 were found near Custer on Buckhorn Mountain. Phillips 

 gathered his material in the Sierra Nevada nearly thirty years 

 ago. (Grev. V, p. 113, t. 87, fig. 2,) but so far as I know the 

 species has not been reported since. In August last Mr. T. B. 

 Ellis, of New Jersey, sent to our laboratory a specimen from 

 Colorado which proves to be the same thing. The species is 

 thus very interesting, not only on account of its own inherent 

 beauty, but because of its rarity and range. As is well known 

 the Black Hills constitute a sort of meeting ground for the 

 flora of almost all parts of the country. Ret.ula occidentalis Hook 

 here meets Betula papyracea Marsh. Pinus ponderosa Dougl. 

 stands side by side with Plcea canadensis Mill, and Populus 

 tremuloides . Mx. overshadows Amelanchier alnifolia Nutt, and 

 Aconitum Jisheri Reich. ; so that we are perhaps less surprised to 

 find a delicate slime-mould on this side of the vast reaches of 

 desert that lie between the Black Hills and the California 

 Sierras. 



9. Comatricha typhina Pers. 



Typical, though small, specimens are in the collection from 

 near Sylvan lake. 



10. Comatricha nigra Pers. 



Very beautiful, but unusually small, specimens of this species 

 were collected on fallen logs of Cottonwood along the south 

 fork of the Cheyenne river. As- in other cases the colony was 

 small. 



11. Stemonitis smithii Macb. 



Well defined specimens of this minute species occur on fallen 

 pine logs near Hot Springs and Cascade. Lister applies this 

 name to all our North American forms having ferruginous 

 spores. But these forms certainly show a diversity too great 

 to admit of their being thus associated. As here employed the 

 specific name is restricted to small forms of scattered habit and 

 very minute .002-. 004 mm smooth spores. This is rare in the 

 western Mississippi valley. 

 • 12. Stemonitis microspora Lister. 



