STEMONITIS.] 
STEMONITACE.^;. 
113 
L. crlbroms (Syst. Myc, iii., p. 87) implies that he probably had the 
confluent form of a Stemonitis before him. S. confluens Cke. & Ellis, 
from New Jersey, Ellis (K. 6G5 ; and L:B.M.83, part of the same 
gathering, furnished by Dr. Rex), appears also to be a confluent form 
of S. splendens ; the spores in both the N. Carolina and New Jersey 
specimens have the typical sculpture, but are darker than usual, and 
measure 9 to 10 /a diam. A specimen from Meudon in the collection of 
the Paris Museum closely resembles that from New Jersey in the 
character of the capillitium ; the spores have also the same dark tint, 
and measure 10 to 11 ; but the sporangia are more normal, having in 
some cases a simple columella and a nearly complete superficial net 
with a wide mesh. Only three or four European gatherings of this 
species are represented in the Strassburg, Brit, Mus., and Kew Collec- 
tions ; it is plentiful in India, America, Australia, and the Pacific 
Islands, from which regions there are numerous specimens in the 
collections, which were classed under S. fusca, until Rostafinski 
detected the specific characters and gave the name of S. splendens. 
The capillitium in this species exhibits wide difEerences, but the spores 
are remarkably constant in colour, size, and in the minute, evenly 
distributed warts, which are sometimes scarcely apparent, even when 
magnified 1,200 diam. ; their distribution resembles that on the spores 
of PTiysarum nutans. The superficial net of the capillitium appears 
to be continuous with the evanescent sporangium-wall, .which is not 
merely attached by short spines projecting from the net as in S. fusca ; 
this character is illustrated by a remarkable form described by Dr. 
Rex (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil,, 1890, p. 36) under the name 
S. Bauerlinii Mass., /. fenestrata. He records the appearance of suc- 
cessive growths of the Stemonitis at considerable intervals of time, on a 
limited area of a decaying log, apparently from one original source. 
Through the courtesy of Dr. Rex the gatherings are represented in the 
mountings in the Brit. Mus. In mounting (a) the sporangium -wall 
is persistent except in approximate circular perforations 10 to 20 fx, wide, 
or in other words the superficial net is expanded to form a perforated 
wall to the sporangium. Mounting (b) is from a later gathering, with 
much of the character of (a), but approaching nearer to the normal 
form. Mounting (c) is from a crop appearing a month later than {h), 
in which there is a still more marked return to the usual habit, with 
the meshes of the net 30 to 60 wide. The width of the mesh varies 
in Rostafinski's types from Cuba and Texas (referred to Rost., App., 
p. 27) ; in that from Cuba (B. M. 630) the average width of the mesh 
is 70 ^i, in that from Texas (K. 1631) it is 20 /x. 8. Morgani Peck, 
N. Am. Fungi, Elhs & Everh. 2088, and S. Bauerlinii Mass., from 
New Guinea (K. 726), are essentially the same form as the Cuba type, 
the mesh of the superficial net averaging about 60 /x in width, 
-S. Webberi Rex (/. ^) has a wider mesh than the Cuba type, and is 
described (I.e. 1891, p. 391) as distinguished from S. splendens by the 
spores bemg ferruginous- coloured in mass, and by the pale surface 
capillitium; the mounted specimens do not show this difference of 
colour. The form gathered at Lyme Regis in 1891 (Journ, Bot. 1891, 
p. 263), var. y, has even more lax and broken capillitium than var. ^] 
and the spores m mass are rich purple-brown ; the growth has appeared 
on the same fir stumps in abundauce in 1892 and 1893, with much the 
same characters as in the first gathering. It has also been obtained 
from the New Forest, Hants, from the Black Forest near Freiburg 
and from Ohio. The type specimen of S. acuminata Mass. (K. 698) 
IS a. genmna, the spores measuring 7 to 8 /x diam. In looking through 
8 
