For the
care and dispersal of the spores, achievement must surely be somewhat
impaired. Whatever the measure of such inefficiency, among the
_Stemonitales Amaurochaete_ shows the acme, as _Reticularia_ among the
brown-spored forms.

In _Amaurochaete_ the individuality of anything like separate sporangia
is less clear. The view afforded, however, by a good vertical section of
a well-developed colony or cushion is interestingly arborescent. Ragged,
dendroid stems arise, dissipated above into a network most intricate, a
"pleached arbor" if you please. The resemblance of the overhead net to
that presented by a stemonitis or comatricha is very striking.

=Key to the Species of Amaurochaete=

_A._ Capillitium rigid, irregular spores rough 1. _A. fuliginosa_
_B._ Capillitium soft, woolly, cincinnate,
spores as in _A_ 2. _A. tubulina_

1. AMAUROCHAETE FULIGINOSA (_Sowerby_) _Macbr._

PLATE V., Figs. 8, 8 _a_.

1803. _Lycoperdon fuliginosum_ Sow., _Eng. Fung._, t. 257.
1805. _Lycogala atrum_, Alb. & Schw., _Consp. Fung._, p. 83.
1875. _Amaurochaete atra_ (Alb. & Schw.) Rost., _Mon._, p. 211.

Fructification aethalioid, varying in form and size, if on the upper
side of the substratum, pulvinate, if below pendent and almost
stipitate, covered with a delicate cortex, at first shining, soon dull,
black, fragile, and early dissipated; hypothallus long-persisting,
supporting the capillitium, which is extremely variable, irregular, and
for its perfection dependent upon the form assumed by the aethalium, and
the conditions of weather, etc., under which it matures, sometimes,
especially when prostrate, in a very much depressed aethalium, spreading
into long fibrous threads, again under better conditions rising in
columella-like forms, supporting a peripheral net; spores dark brown or
black, irregularly globose, spinulose, 12.5-15 mu.

Common in Europe, and probably not uncommon in this country wherever
pine forests occur. Specimens before us are from New England and New
York, Ohio, Carolina, Colorado. Canada.

Sowerby, in his comment on plate 257, _Eng. Fungi_, says: "It appears to
consist of branching threads affixed to the deal and holding a dense
mass of sooty powder. Over the whole is a thin, deciduous pellicle."
This description seems to be applicable to nothing else. The figure
amounts to little. Fries recognizes the English description, as does
Rostafinski, but b