New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa.
5. Comatricha irregularis Rex.
- 1891. Comatricha irregularis Rex, Proc. Phil. Acad., p. 393.
Sporangia crowded in flocculent tufts, very dark brown or black, semi-erect or drooping, 4–5 mm. in height, irregularly cylindric, variable, stipitate; stipe black, distinct, often one-half the total height; hypothallus well developed, brown, shining; columella central, slender, flexuous, reaching the apex, where it blends, by branching, with the capillitium; capillitium loose, open, composed of arcuate threads which radiate from the columella, and are joined together, forming a central, irregular reticulation of large meshes, brown, paler toward the surface, where the free ends are sometimes colorless; spore-mass black, spores by transmitted light brown, minutely warted, 7–8 µ.
Related, no doubt, to C. longa, but differing in habit, stature, as in texture and structure of the capillitium. In C. longa the inner net is extremely simple,—a row or two of meshes at most, and the radiating branches are long and straight; in the species before us the inner network is well developed, and the radiating branches proportionately shorter and abundantly branching, with pale or white free tips.
Generally, though not always, found growing in the crevices of the bark on fallen logs of various deciduous trees. September. Not common.
This is thought to be C. crypta Schw., N. A. F., 2351; but the description under that number does not make clear what form Schweinitz had before him, the present species or C. longa, and the herbarium specimen of Schweinitz is "utterly lost"; the later specific name is accordingly adopted.
New England west to the Cascade Mountains; south to Kansas and Texas.
6. Comatricha laxa Rostafinski.
[Plate V.], Figs. 5, 5 a.