Fig. 850.
THAMNOMYCES CHAMISSONIS (Fig. 850).—Stem Carbonous, black, smooth, repeatedly dichotomously branched, the ultimate branches bearing ovate, acute fruiting bodies. Structure of these bodies shown by Moeller is entirely carbonous, hollow, each forming a single, carbonous perithecium. Spores shown by different authors as of different shapes and sizes. In our specimens they are 9×20-28 mic., dark, and arctuate. They closely resemble the ordinary Xylaria spore.
This was originally named from Brazil by Ehrenberg, who gave a good illustration of it. It has therefore escaped all synonyms, excepting by Cooke, who discovered it was a new species and called it Thamnomyces dendroidea. Hennings also discovered it from Africa, first as a new variety, then as a new species, Thamnomyces camerunensis, but of course everything that came to Hennings must be "new" something. It grows on rotten, hard wood, and does not seem frequent in our American tropics. In Africa, however, I judge it is more abundant as numbers of African collections are in the museum at Berlin. We have only received it once, at nice specimen (Fig. 850) from R. H. Bunting, Gold Coast, Africa.
Fig. 851.
THAMNOMYCES CHORDALIS (Fig. 851).—Stem long, slender, several proceeding from a common base, entirely carbonous, black, smooth. Fruiting bodies (or perithecia?) sessile along the stem, ovate, with slender apices, black. Spores oblong, arctuate, dark.
This, I believe, is only known from tropical America, but is apparently not rare as it is recorded a number of times, mostly from Brazil. Fries named it from French Guiana in 1830 and gave a characteristic description of it. A co-type with the fruit mostly gone is at Kew. Later Montagne got it also from French Guiana and gave a good figure and description under the name Thamnomyces rostratus. He thought it was different from Fries' species on account of the spores not being globose, but the "globose" spores of the original description is doubtless an error. The plants are surely the same. As Montagne's figure is characteristic, the plant when subsequently found has usually been recorded under his name. We present in our figure both Montagne's and Fries' type.
