120 
ENDOSPOREiE. 
[OOMATRICHA. 
cylindrical, elongated and slender, flexuose or drooping, stipitate, 
at fii-st fasciculate, greyish -black ; sporangium-wall evanescent. 
Stalk very slender, 1 to 3 mm. long, black, rLsing from a well- 
developed, membranous hypothallus. Columella continued to 
near the apex of the sporangium, very slender, and wavy with 
angular flexures in the upper part, tapering in breadth from 
20 fjb at the base to 2 /x near the summit. Capillitium a lax 
network of dark brown threads, the terminal branches rigid, free, 
forking at an acute angle. Spores dark grey, spinulose, the 
spines usually connected by faint lines forming a reticulation, 
8 to 9 /A diam. — Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 140 ; 
Morgan, Cine. Soc. Nat. Hist., xvi., p. 50. Stemonitis longa 
Mass., Mon., p. 83. 
a. genuina : capillitium rigid ; spores spinulose, reticulated. 
y8. irregularis : capillitium with flaccid terminal branchlets ; 
spores spinulose. — Gomatricha irregularis Eex, in Proc. Acad. 
N. Sc. Phil. (1891), p. 393. Gomatricha crypta Macbride, in Bull. 
Nat. Hist. lowa^ ii., p. 139. 
Plate XL v., A.— a., h. sporangia, a. gejiuina, n 3^ ; p. capillitium from 
upper part of sporangium, with slender flexuose columella, x 180 ; d. 
capillitium from lower part of another sporangium, x 180 ; e. spores of 
same, showing varying amount of reticulation, x 600 ; /. sporangia of 
/3. irrcgvlaris, x ?>h\ g. capillitium, x 180; li. spore of same, x 600; 
i. spore of C. crypta Macbride, showing faint indication of reticulation, x 
600 (U.S.A.). 
From the absence of any superficial net in the capillitium this 
species is placed in Gomatricha, though in its fasciculate habit it 
resembles a Stemonitis. In a, the capillitium varies in different gather- 
ings ; in some the threads are comparatively short, rigid throughout, 
and anastomosing but little ; in others they form a profuse network 
with many membranous expansions, and very slender free ends, but 
the character of the dark spinulose spores remains constant in all 
fox'ms. ^ is described by Dr. Rex {I.e., p. 393) under the name of 
Gomatricha irregularis ; the terminal branches of the capillitium are 
produced into a network of pale flaccid threads with many free ends ; 
Dr. Rex (in litt.) states that this form is constant in the character of 
the capillitium, and that it has been obtained from five states in North 
America ; the total length of the sporangia varies from about 4 to 
7 mm., but the close resemblance in the capillitium and spores to 
forms of G. longa leads to the conclusion that it is a varietal develop- 
ment of that species. It is the form described under the name of 
G. crypta Macbride, I.e. (teste Rex). The type specimen of Stemonitis 
crypta Schwein. is, Dr. Rex states, utterly lost, and the description is 
too vague to be of value. 
Hah. On the bark of fallen trees (teste Macbride).— a. and /3. Ohio 
(L:B.M.90) ; a. Philadelphia (B. M. 900) ; /3. Philadelphia (L:B.M.90) ; 
/3. Iowa (B. M. 1006) ; a. S. Carolina (B. M. 915) ; a. Cuba (K. 1603) ; 
a. Nicaragua (K. 718). 
5. C. typhoides Rost., Versuch, p. 7 (1873). Plasmodium 
watery-white, in rotten wood. Total height 2 to 3 mm. Sporangia 
cylindrical, obtuse, at first silvery-grey from the presence of the 
soon evanescent wall, then browu ; stipitate, aggregated, 1 '5 to 
