o 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 mu.

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.

5. HEMITRICHIA STIPATA (_Schw._) _Macbr._

PLATE I., Figs. 8, 8 _a_, 8 _b_.

1834. _Leangium stipatum_ Schw., _N. A. F._, p. 258, No. 2304.
1876. _Hemiarcyria stipata_ (Schw.) _Rost., Mon. App._, pp. 41, 42.
1894. _Arcyria stipata_ (Schw.) Lister, _Mon. Mycetozoa_, p. 189.

Sporangia distinct, crowded, cylindric or irregular, overlying one
another, rich copper-colored, metallic, shining, becoming brown,
stipitate; peridium thin, the upper portion early evanescent, the base
persistent as a cup, as in _Arcyria_; capillitium concolorous, the
thread abundantly branched to form a loose net, with many free and
bulbous ends, pale under the lens, marked by three or four somewhat
obscure spiral bands and a few wart-like or plate-like thickenings;
stipe very short; spore-mass reddish, spores by transmitted light pale,
nearly or quite smooth, 6-8 mu.

This species is known at sight by its peculiarly beautiful tint when
fresh, as by the crowded prolix habit of the singular overlying
sporangia. The netted capillitium and the evanescent peridium suggests
_Arcyria_, but there are abundant free tips, and the threads are
unmistakably spirally wound, especially in the large, handsome sporangia
characteristic of the Mississippi valley. It is a boundary form
unquestionably. The stipe is generally very short, about one-tenth the
total height; sometimes, when the peridium is more globose, the stipe is
proportionally longer. Specimens from Iowa show fructifications several
centimetres long and wide.

Not rare. New England to the Black Hills and south.

6. HE