Bean—The Myxomycetes of Wisconsin. 
1259 
Comatricha stemonitis (Scop.) Sheldon. 
1772. Mucor stemonitis Scopoli, FI. Cam., II., pp. 493-494. 
1895. Comatricha stemonitis (Scop.) Sheldon, Minn. Bot. Stud., 
p. 473. 
Macbride: “ Sporangia gregarious, scattered, cylindric, erect, 
sometimes arcuate, obtuse, 2-3 mm. high, at first silvery, then 
brown, as the peridium vanishes, stipitate; stipe black, about 
one half the total height or less ; hypothallus distinct, more or 
less continuous, reddish brown; columella tapering upward, 
black, attaining more or less completely the apex of the sporan¬ 
gium ; capillitium arising as rather stout branches of the colum¬ 
ella, soon taking the form of slender, flexuous, brownish threads, 
which by repeated anastomosing form at length a close network, 
almost as in Stemonitis, the free ultimate branches very delicate 
and short; spore-mass dark brown; spores by transmitted light, 
pale, almost smooth, except for the presence of a few scattered 
but very prominent umbo-like warts, of which four or five may 
be seen at one time, 5-7. 5/l in diameter.’’ 
Lister adopts the name C. typhoides Rost. He gives but 
little in his description differing from the above. He says the 
capillitium varies in the closeness of the network, and that forms 
occur in which the threads are less flexuose. He finds the 
spores to be pale lilac-brown, marked with 3-5 dark, flattened 
warts on the hemisphere, and 3.5 to 7/x in diameter. 
Saecardo calls the spores smooth and from 4.5 to 5/x in di¬ 
ameter. 
The specimens which I have agree very closely with Macbride’s 
description. Remains of the violet-tinted peridium are upon 
the apices of many of the sporangia. The spores are quite de¬ 
terminative—the few umbonate warts being very characteristic. 
One specimen was found growing on dead soft wood, at Edge- 
wood, Madison, July 18, 1903; two at Elmside, July 15, 1904, 
one being on a much decayed oak stump and the other on a dead 
poplar log; another on the inside of poplar bark found in the 
cemetery woods, July 21, 1904; another on poplar wood found, 
in the campus woods, July 22, 1904; another on dead wood 
found on the Windsor road, July 30. 
