Read Ebook: The Myxomycetes of the Miami Valley Ohio by Morgan A P Andrew Price

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TABLE OF GENERA OF TRICHIACEAE.

?1. ARCYRIOIDES. Capillitium of slender threads, branching and anastomosing, thus forming a more or less evident network.

In some of the species the large irregular meshes of the network are scarcely to be discerned, but are rather to be inferred from the abundant branching of the threads and the paucity of the free extremities.

Growing gregariously on old damp logs; very common in this region. Sporangium with the stipe 2-3 mm. in height, the stipe usually much longer than the sporangium; the capillitium expands considerably after the disappearance of the upper part of the sporangium. This species is an Arcyria in every respect, except the spiral ridges, which wind about the thread of the capillitium.

Growing on old wood; Kansas, May Varney. Sporangium with the stipe about 1 mm. in height, the stipe very short. Dr. Rex, in Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1891.

Growing on old wood of Elm, etc. Sporangium with the stipe 1.5-2.5 mm. in height, the stipe variable in length, but not longer than the sporangium, diameter of the sporangium .6-.8 mm. A half dozen threads proceed from the inner wall of the stipe branch twenty-five or thirty times, and afford scarcely half a dozen free ends.

Growing on old wood of Liriodendron. Sporangia usually in small patches, each 1-2 mic. in length, the stipe very thin and short.

?2. HEMITRICHIA. Capillitium of very long slender threads, simple or remotely branched, and not forming a network, their further extremities all free.

The threads of the capillitium in these species are usually much coiled and entangled, but when straightened out they are seen to be very long, but few in number, fixed at one end and free at the other.

Growing on old wood of Oak, etc. Sporangium with the stipe .8-1.5 mm. in height, the stipe very short, not exceeding the diameter of the sporangium. A small species, distinguished by its golden-yellow spores and capillitium.

Growing on old wood; one of the commonest of the Myxomycetes. The fascicle 3-4 mm. in height, the individual sporangia .5-.6 mm. in diameter.

Growing on and inside of rotten wood. Plasmodiocarp an irregular patch, one to several centimeters in extent, the strands of the net about .5 mm. in thickness. A single reticulate plasmodium is usually converted without change of form into an individual plasmodiocarp.

The habit of the single species is that of an Oligonema, and it has spores similar to those of most species of this genus, but the threads are long and branched, and they are fastened below to the base of the sporangium.

Growing on and within rotten wood. Sporangia quite irregular and variable in size, .3-.6 mm. in diameter. The beautiful venation of the wall of the sporangium is continued upon the surface of the threads of the capillitium.

The genus Trichia is unique among the Myxomycetes in having its capillitium composed of tubules, which are entirely free from the wall of the sporangium. The length of these free tubes varies usually between .3 mm. and .5 mm., being sometimes shorter, but seldom longer; they are typically cylindric, or equally thickened from end to end, or quite rarely they are thickened in the middle, and taper gradually to each extremity; the extremities terminate in a smooth tapering point, straight or sometimes a little curved or flexuous, which maintains an average length in each species. The spiral ridges wind around the thread almost invariably to the left, or with the hands of a watch; they are always more or less prominent and conspicuous, and usually maintain a regular curve and uniform interval between each other in the same species; their surface is either smooth, or sometimes it is invested with minute warts or spinules.

In all the species of this genus, however, irregular and abnormal elaters are occasionally met with among the typical ones. As these abnormal forms always arrest attention, and have been conceived to possess specific value, it may be well to note the principal of them.

The few species with elaters, so far as yet known, habitually irregular, defective and abnormal, are referred to the genus Oligonema.

The normal species of Trichia arrange themselves quite naturally into three sections.

?1. A NACTIUM. Sporangia varying from globose to pyriform or turbinate, supported on a more or less elongated stipe. Spores globose, the surface minutely warted.

Growing on old wood. Sporangia with the stipe 2-4 mm. in height, the sporangium .6-.8 mm. in diameter, the stipe usually longer than the sporangium. The color quite variable, mostly dull red-brown or blackish-brown, more rarely yellow or coffee-brown, usually opaque, rarely shining.

Growing on old wood. Sporangium with the stipe 2-4 mm. in height, sporangium .6-.8 mm. in diameter, the stipe usually longer than the sporangium. Under high magnifying power the spores are seen to be minutely reticulated.

On old wood and bark, Adirondack Mountains, New York. Dr. George A. Rex. Sporangium .5-.8 mm. in diameter, the stipe equal in height to the diameter of the sporangium.

Growing on old wood and bark, Adirondack Mountains, New York, Dr. Geo. A. Rex. Sporangium .5-.8 mm. in diameter, the stipe about 1 mm. in height. This Trichia is conspicuous by the checkering or areolation of the upper surface in the mature sporangia, affording a sharp contrast between the brown patches and the yellow bands.

?2. CHRYSOPHIDIA. Sporangia globose, obovoid or somewhat irregular, sessile, rarely with a short stipe, usually closely crowded. Spores globose, the surface minutely warted.

Growing in patches on old wood; a very common species. Sporangium .6-.8 mm. in diameter, or when irregular sometimes elongated to 1 mm. or more. Extremely variable as to the form of the sporangium, but readily recognized by its elaters.

?3. GONIOSPORA, Fr. Sporangia obovoid to oblong, sessile and closely crowded on a well-developed common hypothallus. Spores with thick ridges upon the surface, which are combined into a more or less incomplete network of polygonal meshes.

The ridges of the epispore are 1-2 mic. in height, and do not present to the view more than two or three perfect polygons on a hemisphere of the spores; more often the reticulation is imperfect, the ridges being interrupted and defective. When highly magnified these ridges are seen to be "perforated through their thickness with one, two or three rows, or with clusters of cylindrical openings or pits, or are sculptured into intricate plexuses of minute reticulations with quadrilateral interspaces."

The species of this genus are to be regarded as degenerate Trichias. Of course, the abnormality is exhibited most markedly by the elaters; nevertheless, the sporangia of some of the species have a peculiar habit of heaping themselves upon each other.

Growing in dense patches on old wood and mosses. Sporangia .4-.6 mm. in diameter, and reaching 1 mm. in height, the elaters usually rather long, sometimes quite long and branched.

Growing on old wood and mosses. Sporangia .4-.5 mic. in diameter, the elaters varying greatly in length, some not more than 20 or 30 mic. long, others more than 100 mic. in length.

Growing on an old effused Sphaeria. Sporangia .6-.8 mm. in diameter, the elaters mostly 40-80 mic. in length, rarely much longer and sometimes shorter; the longer elaters and those that are branched often arise from confluence of the shorter ones.

Fig. 13.--Perichaena depressa, Lib.

Fig. 14.--Ophiotheca Wrightii, B. & C.

Fig. 15.--Lachnobolus globosus, Schw.

Fig. 16.--Arcyria Cookei, Massee.

Fig. 17.--Arcyria minor, Schw.

Fig. 18.--Heterotrichia Gabriellae, Massee.

Fig. 19.--Hemiarcyria plumosa, Morgan.

Fig. 20.--Hemiarcyria funalis, Morgan.

Fig. 21.--Calonema aureum, Morgan.

Fig. 22.--Trichia fallax, Pers.

Fig. 23.--Trichia scabra, Rost.

Fig. 24.--Oligonema flavidum, Peck.

NOTE.--Each figure exhibits the sporangium as it appears magnified about 100 diameters, and the capillitium and spores magnified about 500 diameters.

THE MYXOMYCETES OF THE MIAMI VALLEY, OHIO.

BY A. P. MORGAN.

Third Paper.

Sporangia globose or ovoid to oblong and cylindrical, stipitate; the wall very thin and fragile, soon disappearing. Stipe tapering upward and continued within the sporangium as a more or less elongated columella. Capillitium of slender brown threads, arising from numerous points of the columella, repeatedly branching and usually anastomosing to form a network, persistent and rigidly preserving the outline of the sporangium. Spores globose, brown or violaceous.

This order is readily distinguished by the brown persistent capillitium, arising from a lengthened columella, and rigidly maintaining the form of the sporangium.

Table of Genera of Stemonitaceae.

The claim of this genus to be distinguished from Lamproderma must rest upon the fact that the branchlets of the capillitium do not anastomose and form a network. It is the same as the genus Orthotricha of Wingate.

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