This very variable species has been well studied by Dr. Rex. See Bot. Gaz., XVII., p. 201. In its simpler phases it presents but a single layer of sporangia generally closely crowded together, sometimes free and even short stipitate! In the more complex phase the sporangia are heaped together in a pulvinate mass in which the peridia appear as boundaries of minute cells. In this case the outermost sporangia are often consolidated to form a cortex more or less dense and shining. In any case the hypothallus is a prominent feature; generally laminated and of two or three layers, it is in the more hemispheric æthalia very much more complex, sponge-like. When thin this structure is remarkable for its wide extent, 40–50 cm.! The simpler forms approach very near to Cribraria through C. argillacea. The most complex remind us of Enteridium.
This is Perichaena caespitosa Peck. In this country it has, however, been generally distributed as L. effusa Ehr. This author throws some doubt on the species he describes by suggesting that the plasmodium may be red. The description, however, and figures are otherwise good and are established by the usage of Rostafinski. The plasmodium has much the same color as the mature fruit.
Widely distributed. New England to the Black Hills and Colorado, south to Arkansas. California, about Monterey.
2. Tubifera Gmelin
- 1791. Tubifera Gmelin, Syst. Nat., II., p. 1472.
Sporangia tubular, by mutual pressure more or less prismatic, connate, pale ferruginous-brown, iridescent, the walls thin, slightly granular, long-persistent; dehiscence apical; hypothallus thick, spongiose, white or whitish; spore-mass ferruginous.
This genus is easily recognized by the tubular sporangia, destitute of capillitial threads, seated upon a strongly developed hypothallus. The synonymy of the case is somewhat difficult. It is possible that Mueller's Tubulifera ceratum, Fl. Dan., Ellevte Haefte, 1775, p. 8, may belong here, but neither the text nor the figures make it certain. Neither he nor Œder, who gives us T. cremor in the same work, had any accurate idea of the objects described. Gmelin's description of Tubifera, II., 2, 1472, is, however, ample, and his citations of Bulliard's plates leave no doubt as to the forms he included. Gmelin writes: "Thecæ (membranæ expansæ superimpositæ) inter se connatæ seminibus nudiusculis repletæ."
Why, in face of so good a description, Persoon changed the name to that since current, Tubulina, is not clear.
Fries thinks Mueller had an immature Arcyria before him, Syst. Myc., III., p. 196. Tubulifera arachnoidea Jacq., 1778, is also an uncertain quantity, insufficiently described.
Key to the Species of Tubifera