LAMPRODEBMA.] 
STEMONITACB^. 
127 
fuliginous. Stalk subulate or cylindrical, 1 to 1-5 mm. long, black, 
rising from a well-developed hypothallus. Columella cylindrical, 
obtuse, about half the height of the sporangium. Capillitium 
black or cinereous, spreading chiefly from the upper part of the 
columella, threads stout, sparingly forked and anastomosing, 
colourless and slender at the tips. Spores dark grey, echinulate 
with black spines, 15 to 20 /x diam. — Lister, in Journ. Bot. (1891), 
p. 261 ; Mass., Mon., p. 97. Stemonitis echinulata Berk, in Hook. 
Fl. Tasm., p. 268 (1860). Lamproderma Listeri Mass., Mon., p. 97. 
Plate XL VIII., A. — a. sporangia, x 3^ (New Zealand) ; Z>. columella of 
same, x 80 ; c. sporangia, x 3-| (Tasmania) ; d. columella and capillitium 
of same, x 80 ; e. sporangia, x 3i (Moffat) ; /. columella and capillitium, 
X 80 ; f/. spore, x 600. 
In the type specimen from Tasmania many of the stalks are mis- 
shapen and tumid, and the primary branches of the capillitium are soon 
lost in a flaccid network of grey threads with broad expansion! at the 
nodes ; somewhat similar appearances are met with both in the stalks 
and capillitium of L. violaceum, when matured under unfavourable 
conditions, and it appears probable that this specimen is not a perfect 
development ; the primary threads in some parts are continuous and 
branched towards the surface in the manner usual in Lamproderma. 
The specimen from New Zealand is mouldy and difficult to examine, 
but the capillitium forms less of a network, and more nearly approaches 
the MofPat gathering, which is in perfect development, and is that 
described in the text and in the Journ. Bot., I.e. The remarkable 
spores are of the same character in all the specimens, and until further 
examples are obtained it would seem well to include them under one 
species. 
Hah. On dead wood.— Moffat, Scotland (L:B.M.96) ; Tasmania 
(K. 1621) ; New Zealand (L:B.M.96). 
3. L. arcyrionema Rest., Mon., p. 208, App. p. 26 (1875). 
Plasmodium watery-white, in rotten wood. Total height 1 to 
1-5 mm. Sporangia globose, stipitate,. erect, aggregated, 0-5 mm. 
diam., steel-grey or bronze with iridescent reflections ; sporangium- 
wall membranous, falling away in large fragments, often persis- 
tent as a collar round the base of the sporangium. Stalk 
subulate-setaceous, about 1 mm. high, black, shining. Columella 
slender, smooth, cylindrical, about 12 yu, broad, reaching to one- 
third or one-half the height of the sporangium, suddenly dividing 
at the apex into the primary branches of the capillitium. Capilli- 
tium of dark purple-brown threads arising from the apex of the 
columella, branching repeatedly and anastomosing to form a close 
crisped network, with very short free ends. Spores lilac-grey, 
smooth or very faintly warted, 6 to 7 ^ diam.— Mass., Mon., 
p. 96. Stemonitis physaroides var. suhaeneus Berk., in Mass., 
Mon., p. 95. Lamproderma suhaeneum Mass., I.e. Comatricha 
Shimekiana Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., n 380 
PI. X., fig. 3. ' ' » 
Plate XLVIII., B.— «. sporangia, x 3i (United States) ; 5. capillitium of 
same, x 180 ; c. sporangia, x 20 (England) ; d. columella and capillitium. 
X 80 ; spore, x 600. * ^ ' 
