A rare and beautiful species, distinguished well by the small size, about .5 mm., by the thin iridescent peridium, as by the microscopic characters of the capillitial threads.
There is no doubt that this is Persoon's Trichia ovata. His description is accurate in all that pertains to external features, and Rostafinski, App., p. 41, explicitly says that he saw in Persoon's herbarium specimens of the species bearing the name cited. Just why Rostafinski did not here adopt the older name is not clear, nor is there excuse for abandoning Wigand's name were Persoon's invalid. According to Lister, Trichia nana Mass., from Maine, is the same thing. Persoon, l. c., gives a synonymy which, in the nature of case, is unverifiable, the specific characters being microscopic.
Fries, Syst. Myc., III., p. 187, confirms Persoon and takes pains to say that the color separates it from T. chrysosperma with which it is sometimes compared.
Rare. Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Toronto.
4. Hemitrichia vesparium (Batsch) Macbr.
[Plate III]., Figs. 2 and 2 a.
- 1786. Lycoperdon vesparium Batsch, Elench. Fung., pp. 255, 256, Fig. 172.
- 1794. Trichia rubiformis Pers., Röm. N. Bot. Mag., I., p. 88.
- 1875. Hemiarcyria rubiformis (Pers.) Rost., Mon., p. 262.
Sporangia clustered or crowded, rarely single, clavate or subcylindric stipitate or sessile, dark wine-red or red-black in color, the peridium in perfect specimens glossy or shining metallic, opaque; stipes solid, usually blent together, concolorous; capillitium of intertwisted slender threads, sparingly branched, marked by three or four spiral ridges, abundantly spinulose, the free tips also acuminate, terminating in a spine, the whole mass dull red. Spore-mass brownish-red, spores by transmitted light reddish-orange, very distinctly warted, sub-globose, 10–12 µ.
A most common species, on rotten wood everywhere, especially in forests. Recognized generally at sight by its color and fasciculate habit. The peridium shows a tendency, often, to circumscissile dehiscence, and persists long after the contents have been dissipated, in this condition suggesting the name applied by Batsch, vesparium, wasp-nest. The capillitium is remarkably spinescent, the branching of the threads, rare. Rostafinski describes the spores as smooth; they seem to be uniformly distinctly warted. The plasmodium is deep red, and a plasmodiocarpous fructification occasionally appears.
Throughout the whole range, New England to Washington and Oregon, south to Nicaragua; Toronto.