New Mexico, etc.

9. STEMONITIS SPLENDENS _Rost._

PLATE VI., Figs. 6, 6 _a_, 6 _c_, 7, 7 _a_.

1875. _Stemonitis splendens_ Rost., _Mon._, p. 195.
1880. _Stemonitis morgani_ Peck, _Bot. Gaz._, V., p. 33.
1893. _Stemonitis splendens_ Rost., Macbr., _Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist._,
Vol. II, p. 381.
1894. _Stemonitis splendens_ Rost., List., _Mycetozoa_, p. 112, in
part.
1899. _Stemonitis morgani_ Peck, Macbr., _N. A. S._, p. 118.
1911. _Stemonitis splendens_ Rost., List., _Mycetozoa, 2nd ed._,
p. 145.

Sporangia clustered irregularly, sometimes forming patches 6-10
centimetres or more in extent, rich purple-brown in mass, cylindric,
long, 15-18 mm., stipitate; stipe black, polished, shining, rising from
a common hypothallus, which extends as a thin silvery film beneath the
entire colony, but does not usually transcend its limits; columella
black, percurrent, sparingly branched; capillitium of fuscous threads,
within forming a network very open, the branches scarcely anastomosing
until they reach the surface where they form the usual net of small
meshes, pretty uniform in size, and presenting very few small,
inconspicuous peridial processes; spores brown, very minutely warted,
about 8 mu.

This elegant species occurs not rarely on rotten wood, usually in
protected situations, although sometimes on the exposed surfaces of its
habitat. The sporangia attain with us unusual height, sometimes 2 cm.;
plasmodia, 6-8 cm., in diameter. The clear brown tufts appear in the
autumn, marvels of graceful elegance and beauty; at sight easily
recognizable by the large size and rich color. In Iowa it is almost
universally present on fallen stems of _Acer saccharinum_ Linn., and it
appears to be widely distributed, by far the most beautiful of all this
beautiful series.

New England to Iowa, South Dakota, Washington, and British Columbia.
Professor Shimek brings a _dusky_ phase from Nicaragua!--the type?

The plasmodium is white on maple stems, more creamy on stems of linden,
on which wood it is more rarely found: occasionally on ash-stumps; even
on the fallen bark of trees preferred.

In 1875 in his famous _Monograph_, Rostafinski set out three species
with "dusky violet spores". These are his Nos. 94, 95 and 96.

The first one of these he calls _S. fusca_, "spore-mass, etc.,
violet-black, individual spore clear violet, smooth, 7-9 u."

The second species he writes down _S. dictyospora