- 1873. Amaurochaete Rost., Versuch., p. 8.
The genus Amaurochaete as defined by Rostafinski and the genus Reticularia as represented by R. lycoperdon Bull. stand, the expression, perhaps, of not dissimilar histories. Whether in regressive or progressive series, each to-day presents a case of arrested development. Each in æthalioid fructification, reveals a mass of involved individual (?) sporangia, so imperfectly developed that their outlines can be inferred rather than anywhere, with absolute definiteness, certainly ascertained. Perhaps, because similar sporangia in the group to which either belongs, do come under other circumstances, to more perfect individual form and function—perhaps for this reason we may look upon these æthalia as exhibiting a suspended performance; the sporangia have failed to go forward to what was evidently a possible, though apparently not an essential destiny in form and figure. For the care and dispersal of the spores, achievement must surely be somewhat impaired. Whatever the measure of such inefficiency, among the Stemonitales Amaurochaete shows the acme, as Reticularia among the brown-spored forms.
In Amaurochaete the individuality of anything like separate sporangia is less clear. The view afforded, however, by a good vertical section of a well-developed colony or cushion is interestingly arborescent. Ragged, dendroid stems arise, dissipated above into a network most intricate, a "pleached arbor" if you please. The resemblance of the overhead net to that presented by a stemonitis or comatricha is very striking.
Key to the Species of Amaurochæte
| A. Capillitium rigid, irregular spores rough | 1. A. fuliginosa |
| B. Capillitium soft, woolly, cincinnate, spores as in A | 2. A. tubulina |
1. Amaurochæte fuliginosa (Sowerby) Macbr.
[Plate V.], Figs. 8, 8 a.
- 1803. Lycoperdon fuliginosum Sow., Eng. Fung., t. 257.
- 1805. Lycogala atrum, Alb. & Schw., Consp. Fung., p. 83.
- 1875. Amaurochaete atra (Alb. & Schw.) Rost., Mon., p. 211.
Fructification aethalioid, varying in form and size, if on the upper side of the substratum, pulvinate, if below pendent and almost stipitate, covered with a delicate cortex, at first shining, soon dull, black, fragile, and early dissipated; hypothallus long-persisting, supporting the capillitium, which is extremely variable, irregular, and for its perfection dependent upon the form assumed by the æthalium, and the conditions of weather, etc., under which it matures, sometimes, especially when prostrate, in a very much depressed æthalium, spreading into long fibrous threads, again under better conditions rising in columella-like forms, supporting a peripheral net; spores dark brown or black, irregularly globose, spinulose, 12.5–15 µ.
Common in Europe, and probably not uncommon in this country wherever pine forests occur. Specimens before us are from New England and New York, Ohio, Carolina, Colorado. Canada.