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Stemonitis dictyospora, Rost., Mon., p. 193 ; Sacc., Syll., vii., 1,
1303.
On palm leaves. Venezuela; Amazon Valley; United States.
The type specimen on which Rostafinski founded the species
is in the Berkeley herbarium, Kew, and had evidently been
considered as distinct as the MS. name of “ S. trechispwa, B.
and C.,” is on the paper in Berkeley’s writing. I t seems a pity
that Rostafinski could not accept this name. Distinguished at
once by the silvery white sporangial wall, very small peripheral
meshes of the capillitium, and reticulated spores.
B. Spores brown or femginonis in the mass.
§ Spores smooth.
Stemonitis Carlylei, Mass. (n. sp.) (figs. 158, 159).
Growing in small scattered tufts, sporangia cylindrical, apex
obtuse, wall very thin, evanescent except the apical portion,
which remains like a cap, dark, with purple or dark blue tin ts ;
stem short, dark, expanding into a tough, brown, common hypothallus;
mass of spores dull orange-brown; columella attenuated
upwards, disappearing just below the apex; capillitium
dense, originating in numerous stout branches from the columella,
which soon break up into thinner branches that anastomose
to form a dense, irregular net, threads arcuate, peripheral
meshes large, at least twice the diameter of the spm-es, and bearing
numermes free tips which are at first attached to the wall, brown,
becoming paler towards the periphery; spores globose, pale,
clear orange-brown, smooth, 11—15 g diameter.
On wood. Carlisle.
Growing in small scattered tufts of from 8—14 plants,
3'3—4 mm. high, the sporangia are cylindrical with abruptly
rounded ends, or rarely slightly attenuated below, and passing
into the stem, which is not usually a quarter the length of the
sporangium. At once distinguished from Stemonitis ferruginea,
the remaining briglit-spored species by the large peripheral
meshes of the capillitium, with numerous free tips, and the
Stemonitis. 85
larger spores. The spores sometimes show indistinct indications
of warting under 1200 diameters.
Stemonitis ferruginea, Rost. (figs. 160, 161).
Densely gregarious, on a well-developed hypothallus; sporangium
cylindrical, obtuse, wall thin, dark brown, evanescent;
stem slender, blackish, equal to or shorter than sporangium;
columella reaching to the apex of the sporangium, blackish ;
capillitium dense, threads dark brown, tapering, combined to
form an irregular network, the periphercd meshes about equalling
the spores in diameter; spores in the mass bright h-enon,
pale brown by transmitted light, globose, smooth, 6—9 g
diameter.
Stemonitis ferrttginea, Rost., Mon., p. 196, figs. 31—39, 41—44,
and 50; Cke., Myx. Brit., p. 47, figs. 31—39, 41—44, and 50;
Sacc., Syll., vii., n. 1365.
Exsicc.—Rav., Fung. Car., 76 (typical); Rav., Fung. Amer.,
788.
On rotten wood, &c. Britain (Lyndhurst, Highgate, Scarboro’,
Carlisle, Linlithgow); Europe; United States; Mexico; S.
Domingo; Cuba; Rangoon; Ceylon; Queensland; New Zealand.
Usually densely gregarious, 1—I'o cm. high. Readily distinguished
by the small peripheral meshes of the capillitium
and the bright: brown colour of the spores in the mass.
(Rostafinski’s Synonyms.)
Stemonitis typhina, NAi&., Ber., 408 (1787).
Clathrus nudus. Bolt., t. 93, f. 1 (1789).
Trichia axifera, Bull., t. 447, f. 1 (1791).
Stemonitis fasculata, Pers., Syn., 187 (1801).
Stemmiitis violaeea, Schum., Saell., 1491 (1803).
Stemonitis faseieulata, DC., FI. Fr., ii., 256 (1803).
Stemonitis ferruginea, Ehr., Syl. Ber., f. vi. a b (1818); Cooke,
Hdbk., No. 1136.
Stemonitis decipiens, Nees. Nov. Act. Leop., xvi. 95 (1821).
Stemonitis heterospora, Oudem. Ned. Kr. Arch., i., 167 (1872).