12. Stemonitis axifera (Bull.) Macbr.
[Plate VI.], 5, 5 a, and 5 b.
- 1791. Trichia axifera ferruginea Bull., Champ. de la Fr., p. 118, tab. 477.
- 1818. Stemonitis ferruginea Ehr., Syl. Myc. Berol., p. 20; et auct. Europ. ex parte; Americ., non.
- 1894. Stemonitis ferruginea Ehr., List., Mycetozoa, p. 115, in part.
- 1899. Stemonitis axifera (Bull.) Macbr., N. A. S., p. 120, in part.
- 1911. Stemonitis ferruginea Ehr., Lister, Mycetozoa, 2nd ed.
Sporangia terete, acuminate, fasciculate small in dense clusters, distinctly ferruginous in color, stipitate, from 10–15 mm. in height; the stipe black one-third to one-half the total height, not shining or polished; columella evenly branching, dissipated before reaching the acuminate apex; capillitium-branches clear brown anastomosing and dividing more or less to bear the superficial fine-meshed net; spores pallid, faintly ferruginous, smooth or nearly so, 5–6 µ.
This would seem to be the common ferruginous species of the world. Doubtless Micheli had the thing before him when he drew Tab. 94, clathroidastrum, Hoffman and Jacquin seem to have recognized the form. To be sure, under the present plasmodic limitations we cannot be quite certain about these references. Not until 1791 does anyone write down a particular species as marked by a white plasmodium, and distinguish it from other similar fructifications having similar origin. Bulliard, l. c., does this, discriminating between T. axifera ferruginea and C. typhoides; see under the last-named species. Youthful Ehrenberg, in his doctor's thesis, nearly thirty years later, draws a similar parallel but ignores the great French author, writing S. ferruginea Ehr. as though the thing had never been seen before! By this name it has been called until very lately; Fries accepting it, but noting that the plasmodium, for him at least, was yellow!
In 1904 Dr. E. Jahn, following Fries' suggestion, established the fact that Ehrenberg's white-plasmodic species had small spores, that Fries had in mind a form with larger spores, having indeed yellow plasmodium; but see number 13 below.
It is for the present assumed that the plasmodium of our American S. axifera is white. So far, there are few or no observations which establish the fact. The color, the small smooth spores, the fine-meshed capillitial net and the general dimensions determine the reference.
13. Stemonitis flavogenita Jahn.
[Plate XX.], Figs. 10, 10 a, 10 b.
- 1829. Stemonitis ferruginea Ehr., Fries, Myc. III., p. 158, Syn. excl.
- 1899. Stemonitis axifera (Bull.) Macbr., N. A. S., p. 120, in part.
- 1904. Stemonitis flavogenita Jahn, Abh. Bot. Ver. Brandenb., XLV, p. 265.
- 1911. Stemonitis flavogenita Jahn, List., Mycetozoa, 2nd ed., p. 149.