1258 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 
Comatricha nigra (Pers.) Schroeter. 
1791. Stemonitis nigra Pers.. Gmel., Syst. Nat., p. 1467. 
1889. Comatricha nigra (Pers.) Schroeter, Fils, schles., p. 118. 
Maebride: “Sporangia scattered, ferruginous or dark brown, 
globose or ovoid, stipitate; stipe long, hair-like, tapering upward, 
black; hypothallus none; columella rapidly diminishing toward 
the top, at length dissipated; capillitium of slender flexuous 
threads, radiating horizontally, repeatedly branching and anas- 
tomozing to form an intricate dense network, from the surface of 
which project a few short hook-like peridial processes; spore- 
mass black, spores by transmitted light dark violaceous, smooth 
or nearly so. 7-10/x in diameter. This species is easily recog¬ 
nized bv its almost globose sporangia mounted on long, slender 
stalks These are 2 or 3 mm, high and generally persist a long 
time after the sporangium has fallen. ” 
Saccardo adopts the name C. friesiana (De By.) Rost. He 
does not differ from Maebride in his description. 
Massee adopts the name Stemonitis friesiana De Bary. He 
states that the sporangium wall is very thin, disappearing, whit¬ 
ish with a silver sheen or purple black. He also speaks of the 
stem expanding at the base into a small, circular, irregularly; 
ribbed or latticed hypothallus. The wall I have not seen. The 
hypothallus as he describes it shows plainly under the micro¬ 
scope. but is not noticeable without a lens. 
Lister gives the total height of this species as from 1 to 6 mm., 
the color as purplish brown. He finds the capillitium threads an¬ 
astomosing and branching in semicircular curves. This character 
of the branching I do not find to be constant. The spores he 
describes as nearly smooth, or minutely and closely spinulose. 
I find the globose or ovoid sporangia with their long stipes 
quite determinative; and the long, slender columella, with the 
capillitium threads freely branching from its entire length, pre¬ 
vent its being taken for a Lamproderma. It agrees in general 
with the descriptions given above, though I find the spores smooth 
or nearly so, not spinulose. 
Our one specimen I found growing upon a small, very hard, 
decorticated oak branch in the campus woods, July 18, 1904. 
