Bean—The Myxomycetes of Wisconsin. 
1257 
Comatricha longa Peek. 
1890. Comatricha longa Peek. Rep. N. Y. Mus., 43, p. 70. 
Peek: 1 ‘ Stems growing from a shining membranous hypothal- 
lus, closely gregarious, penetrating the peridia as a columella, 
capillary, black; peridia narrowly cylindrical, generally elon¬ 
gated, 12-40 mm. long, often flexuous, very fugacious, its 
branches generally somewhat reticulately connected near their 
base and forming a few large meshes, externally divided into 
slender, sharp-pointed, divergent, spine-like branchlets, with free 
apices blackish; spores globose, even, .0003 to .00035 in. in di¬ 
ameter. ’ ’ 
Maebride describes this species as having sporangia crowded 
in depressed masses or tufts. He says the stipe is generally 
very short and the hypothallus black. He calls the spore-mass 
blue-black and the spores by transmitted light dark brown, glo¬ 
bose, w^arted, and about 9/x in diameter. He says the sporangia, 
though generally about 20-25 mm., occasionally reach 50 mm. 
Lister notes the further fact that the columella is wavy, with 
angular flexures in the upper part, tapering in breadth from' 
20 fx at the base to 2y near the summit, and that the terminal 
branches of the capillitium are rigid and fork at an acute angle. 
He calls the spores dark gray, spinulose, the spines usually con¬ 
nected by faint lines forming a reticulation. 
Massee includes this species in the genus Stomonitis, calling it 
S. longa Massee. He finds the axils of the capillitium branches 
usually rounded, and often occupied for some distance by a thin 
membrane, sometimes connected laterally. He finds the spores 
to be very minutely reticulated, 7-8 y in diameter. 
The specimen which I have shows the general characteristics 
as described above. The sporangia are from 30 to 40 mm. long. 
The authorities whom I have quoted differ in regard to the epis- 
pore. I find Ihe spores to be finely reticulated, but by very 
narrow bands so much raised above the surface as to look along 
the border like a regular row of sharp spines. I find the spores 
to be dark brown and 9^ in diameter. 
My one specimen I found in the campus woods near the lake, 
growing upon smooth bark, in October 1903. 
