Since the distribution of Washington material, as mentioned, our species reappears at various points in western Europe, points in England, etc., and will no doubt now share, hereafter as a century ago, the habitat so long conceded to the long familiar older type.
B. STEMONITACEÆ
Capillitium abundant, springing usually as dissipating branches from all parts of the columella; the sporangia generally definite and distinct, though sometimes closely placed and generally rising from a common hypothallus.
Key to the Genera of the Stemonitaceæ
| A. Fructification æthalioid; capillitium charged with vesicles | 1. Brefeldia | ||
| B. Sporangia distinct, or nearly so. | |||
| a. Stipe and columella jet-black. | |||
| 1. Capillitium so united as to form a surface net | 2. Stemonitis | ||
| 2. Capillitial branch-tips free | 3. Comatricha | ||
| b. Stipe and columella whitish; calcareous | 4. Diachaea | ||
1. Brefeldia Rostafinski
- 1873. Brefeldia Rost., Versuch, p. 8.
Sporangia occupying in the æthalium several layers, those of the median, and especially of the lowest layers, furnished with columellæ which blend beneath; capillitium threads in the lowest layers arising from the columella, in the upper extending radiately between the individual sporangia, and united at the sporangial limits by means of rather large inflated sacs.
The genus Brefeldia is, like some others, difficult to dispose of in any scheme of classification where linear sequence must be followed. Rostafinski placed it in an order by itself. Its relationships are on the one hand with Amaurochaete and Reticularia, and on the other with the Stemonitales, though easily distinguished from either. It is intermediate to Amaurochaete and Stemonitis, and withal, as it appears to us, a little nearer the latter, as the limits of the individual sporangia are in Brefeldia pretty well defined.
1. Brefeldia maxima (Fr.) Rost.