he form we study.
His species is not an amaurochete; the size of the spores suggest that,
to say nothing of the capillitial structure.

In the same volume VII., the distinguished author introduces another
amaurochete, _A. minor_ Sacc. & Ellis, _Mich._ II., p. 566. This is
American; sent from Utah by our famous pioneer collector Harkness. A
specimen is before us: it is a lepidoderma! in shining, scaly armor
dressed; vid. under _L. carestianum_.

Since the distribution of Washington material, as mentioned, our species
reappears at various points in western Europe, points in England, etc.,
and will no doubt now share, hereafter as a century ago, the habitat so
long conceded to the long familiar older type.

_B._ STEMONITACEAE

Capillitium abundant, springing usually as dissipating branches from all
parts of the columella; the sporangia generally definite and distinct,
though sometimes closely placed and generally rising from a common
hypothallus.

=Key to the Genera of the Stemonitaceae=

_A._ Fructification aethalioid; capillitium charged
with vesicles 1. _Brefeldia_

_B._ Sporangia distinct, or nearly so.

_a._ Stipe and columella jet-black.

1. Capillitium so united as to form a surface
net 2. _Stemonitis_

2. Capillitial branch-tips free 3. _Comatricha_

_b._ Stipe and columella whitish; calcareous 4. _Diachaea_

=1. Brefeldia= _Rostafinski_

1873. _Brefeldia_ Rost., _Versuch_, p. 8.

Sporangia occupying in the aethalium several layers, those of the median,
and especially of the lowest layers, furnished with columellae which
blend beneath; capillitium threads in the lowest layers arising from the
columella, in the upper extending radiately between the individual
sporangia, and united at the sporangial limits by means of rather large
inflated sacs.

The genus _Brefeldia_ is, like some others, difficult to dispose of in
any scheme of classification where linear sequence must be followed.
Rostafinski placed it in an order by itself. Its relationships are on
the one hand with _Amaurochaete_ and _Reticularia_, and on the other
with the _Stemonitales_, though easily distinguished from either. It is
intermediate to _Amaurochaete_ and _Stemonitis_, and withal, as it
appears to us, a little nearer the latter, as the limits of the
individual sporangia