Chapter V: ENERTHENEMA, Bowm. Sporangium regular, globose, stipitate; the wall

thin and fragile, fugacious. Stipe stout, thick, tapering upward, entering the sporangium and prolonged to its apex, there expanding into a discoid membrane. Capillitium originating from the lower surface of the apical disk of the columella; the threads branched a few times and hanging downward, their extremities free. Spores globose, violaceous.

A well-marked genus, by reason of the peculiar origin of the capillitium.

1. ENERTHENEMA PAPILLATUM, Pers. Sporangium globose, stipitate; the wall brown or blackish, soon disappearing. Stipe black, rugulose, thick below, tapering above into the slender columella, which, at its apex, expands into a thin membranaceous disk. Capillitium of long brown threads suspended from the apical disk, the threads branched a few times, occasionally anastomosing by a short, transverse branchlet, the free ends often forked. Spores globose, very minutely warted, violaceous, 10-12 mic. in diameter. See Plate XI, Fig. 35.

Growing on old wood. Stipe and columella .8-1.2 mm. in height. The species seems to be rare in this country, as I have met with it but once myself, and have received only a few specimens from elsewhere.