TRICHIA.] TRICHIACE^. 167 



A form with the ends of the elaters obtuse, and the spiral bands 

 continued at the apex into widely diverging spines, has been named 

 T. abrupta Oooke, but this character is also found occasionally in 

 T. favoginea, T. affinis, and T. scabra. T. proximella Karsten and 

 T. sulphurea Mass. have elaters 4'5 to 5 ju diam., and spores with the 

 bands much broken ; T. Balfourii Mass. has the elaters 4 to 6 ft diam., 

 and the reticulation on the spores consists of wide, broken and pitted 

 bands. They present no character by which they can be separated from 

 T. persimilis. > 



Hab. On dead wood, leaves, etc. — Batheaston, Somerset (B. M. 367) ; 

 Penzance (B. M. 370) ; Epping Forest, Essex (L;B.M.136) ; Lyme 

 Regis, Dorset (L:B.M.1B6) ; Boynton, Yorkshire (B. M. 1125) ; Glamis, 

 Scotland (B. M. 369) ; Germany (Strassb. Herb.) ; France (K. 1183) ; 

 Finland (L:B.M.136 sMe) ; Cape (K. 1047) ; Ceylon (K. 1749) ; Java 

 (K. 1755) ; Philadelphia (L:B.M.136). 



5. T. scabra Eost., Men., p. 258 (1875). Plasmodium v^atery- 

 white, in rotten wood. Sporangia globose, crowded, seated on a - 

 common me;iibranous bypothallus, 0'6 to 0"9 mm. diam., shining, 

 yellow-brown. Capillitium and spores in mass bright orange- 

 yellow. Oapillitium of long, cylindrical bright yellow elaters, 4 

 to 6 j«. diam., with four or five bands arranged in somewhat 

 irregular spirals, either close or distant, beset with spines, or 

 nearly smooth, the ends acutely conical or with the bands pro- 

 duced at the apex in more or less diverging points, longitudinal 

 striae rarely evident. Spores yellow, minutely reticulated with 

 depressed bands forming a complete or fragmentary net with 

 about forty meshes to the hemisphere,^ irregularly^jgartfid, the 

 spore border being reduced to a spinulose margin, 9 to 11 ju diam. 

 —Cooke, Myx. Brit., figs. 214, 239 ; Blytt, Bidr. K. Norg., Sop. iii. 

 (1892), p. 13 ; Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 132 ; 

 Mass., Mon., p. 192. Trichia minima Mass., in Journ. R. Micr. 

 See. (1889), p. 336 ; Mass., Mon., p. 182.- Triohia nitens Fries, 

 Mass., in Journ. E. Micr. Soc. (1889), p. 333 ; Mass., Mon., p. 179. 

 Arcyria BuckTialM Mass., Mon., p. 161. 



Plate LX., A. — d. sporangia, x 20 ; e. Sc i. elaters, x 600 ; /. spore, x 

 600 (England). 



The type of Arcyria BucknalU Mass., from Bristol (K. 1774), is an in- 

 teresting form of T. scabra ; the capillitium is spinose, and consists of 

 long, sparingly branched free elaters, not combined into a network ;" 

 the spiral bands are in many parts entirely modified into rings, a cha- 

 racter which is often seen in a less degree in imperfect developments 

 of this species ; the spores are of _ the typical form of T. scabra. The 

 specimen from Luton (L:B.M.137) has the dense net of a Hemitrichia 

 and no free elaters ; the close and rugged spirals on the threads have 

 in some parts an annular arrangement ; it is, however, an undoubted 

 form of T. scabra with typical spores. The type of T. minima Mass., 

 from Oldham (K. 1044), has spinulose elaters 4 to 5 ft diam. ; the spores 

 measure 9 fi, some are delicately retioulatedf in others the net is broken 

 into warts and short bands ; it is not an unusual form of T. scabra. A 

 type specimen of T. nitens (K. 1104) has Spores 9 to 10 /x. diam., for 

 the most part delicately reticulated, but some have the bands much 

 broken ; the elaters measure 4 to 5 fi diam.j with regular spiral 



