show us the perfection of beauty in this genus;
the polished stipe, the symmetrical capillitium, the soft purple-brown
tints, are remarkable, and enable one to recognize the form at sight.

Specimens from Oregon are unusually fine; larger than usual, reach 7 mm.
total height, and when blown out present the tints of violet in unusual
clearness; var. _C. pacifica_. Plate XVIII., Figs. 13, 13_a_, and 13_b_.

New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois; Oregon, _Professor Peck._

10. COMATRICHA TYPHOIDES (_Bull._) _Rost._

PLATE VI., Figs. 1, 1 _a_, 1 _b_.

1772. _Mucor stemonitis_ Scopoli, _Fl. Carn._, II., pp. 493-494 (?).
1774. _Mucor stemonitis_ Schaeffer, _Icones. Tab._, CCXCVII (?).
1780. _Stemonitis typhina_ Wiggers, _Prim. Fl. Hols._, p. 116 (?).
1791. _Trichia typhoides_ Bulliard, _Champ. de la France_, p. 119,
t. 477, II.
1796. _Stemonitis typhina_ Persoon, _Myc. Obs._, I., p. 57, in part.
1805. _Stemonitis typhoides_ (Bull.) D. C., _Fl. Fr._, p. 257.
1829. _Stemonitis typhoides_ (Bull.) Fr., _Syst. Myc._, III., p. 158.
1873. _Comatricha typhoides_ (Bull.) Rost., _Vers._, p. 7.
1875. _Comatricha typhina_ (Pers.) Rost., _Mon._, p. 197.
1895. _Comatricha stemonitis_ (Scop.) Sheldon, _Minn. Bot. Stud._,
p. 473.
1899. _Comatricha stemonitis_ (Scop.) Sheld., Macbr., _N. A. S._,
p. 130.
1911. _Comatricha typhoides_ Rost., List., _Mycetozoa, 2nd ed._,
p. 157.

Sporangia gregarious, scattered, cylindric, erect, sometimes arcuate,
obtuse, 2-3 mm. high, at first silvery, then brown, as the peridium
vanishes, stipitate; stipe black, about one-half the total height or
less; hypothallus distinct, more or less continuous, reddish-brown;
columella tapering upward, black, attaining more or less completely the
apex of the sporangium; capillitium, arising as rather stout branches of
the capillitium, soon taking the form of slender, flexuous, brownish
threads, which by repeated anastomosing form at length a close network,
almost as in _Stemonitis_, the free, ultimate branches very delicate and
short; spore-mass dark brown; spores by transmitted light, pale, almost
smooth, except for the presence of a few scattered but very prominent
umbo-like warts, of which four or five may be seen at one time, 5-7.5 mu.

This is our most common North American species. It occurs everywhere on
decaying wood, sometimes in remarkable quantity, thousands of sporangia
at a time.