1916] FAULL—CHONDROMYCES THAXTERI 227 
orange, in this as in other respects showing great variability, and 
ranging 250-750 in height, averaging about 3504. They are 
usually simply stalked, but the stalks may fork or even branch 
more than once, as is shown in fig. 5. The stalks are broad- 
based, narrowing slightly toward the apex, and yellowish in color. 
Within their gelatinous matrix are considerable numbers of rods, 
especially in the lower part. It may be noted also that many 
members of the colony contributing to the fructification are left on 
the medium in the immediate neighborhood. 
At the tip of the stalk a single head of rods may be found, but 
more frequently several are formed, resulting from a lobing or 
branching of the mass that has attained this level, an example of 
which is represented in fig. 3. These lobes or heads may be sessile 
or short-stalked. This habit calls to mind C. pediculatus Thaxt., 
in which species the lobes at once ripen as the ultimate cysts, and 
C. catenulatus Thaxt., in which, however, the lobes first elongate 
and then contract at intervals, due to secondary movements of the 
rods, giving rise to chains of cysts. But development goes further’ 
here. A striking phenomenon next takes place, namely, a heaping 
up of the rods in radially arranged masses over the entire surface of 
each head, in the form of elongated cones (figs. 7, 11) or, more 
rarely, in the form of cylinders (figs. 4, 12), likewise of compara- 
tively great length. In the first instance the apices of the cones are 
often attenuated to such an extent as to be tipped with but single 
rods. The surface of the now bristling head is directly invested 
closely by a yellowish sipaee es a membrane, a secretion from 
the rods. 
The cylindrical form has its counterpart in C. crocatus B. and C., 
in which, however, the cylinders become sharply abstricted at the 
base, and mature as cysts, when ripe falling away from the cysto- 
Phore and from one another at the slightest touch; and similarly 
the conical form, which is the more frequent of the two, recalls 
C. apiculatus Thaxt., possibly its most closely related species. In . 
C. apiculatus the cones develop into cysts as do the cylinders 
in C. crocatus, but this is first initiated by a secondary migration of 
the rods to the centers of the cones, the covering membrane simply 
shrivelling at the bases and apices. 
