140 KupFerR: STUDIES ON URNULA AND GEOPYXIS 
2. Urnula Craterium (Schw.) Fr. (Geopyxis Craterium Rehm.) 
This is a large leathery fungus 3-7.5 cm. wide, often over 7 cm. 
high, with a stalk 5 cm. long and sometimes 2 cm. broad. Even 
externally the fungus does not closely answer Rehm’s own descrip- 
tion of the genus Geopyxis under which he places it; the texture 
of the apothecium is described as fleshy, the stem, as short and 
sometimes thin; while in this plant, the leathery character of the 
cup and the length and thickness of the stem are its noticeable 
features ; one of its most characteristic points is the dense black 
tomentum which serves as a hypothallus. The hypothallus in 
G. carbonaria, on the other hand, is very inconspicuous. The 
difference in the size of the asci and spores is also a point worthy 
of mention in the contrast between the two forms; the asci in 
U. Craterium are 430 long and 124 wide; the spores, 25-30 
long and 8y wide. The asci in this fungus then are more than 
twice as long and the spores nearly three times as large as in 
the Geopyxis. But ignoring these facts, a comparison of the in- 
ternal anatomy of the two forms will, I think, dispel all illusions 
as to their relationship. In jig. 2 is represented a cross section 
of U. Craterium. The excipulum is seen to be divided into two 
distinct layers. At the outside, next to the limiting membrane, 
there are a few rows of rather regular polygonal cells; but the 
great mass of the excipulum and hypothecium is prosenchymatous, 
7. e., made up of long non-septate interwoven hyphae giving an 
exceedingly fibrous appearance to the whole tissue. The hypo 
thecium is differentiated from the medullary portion of the excipu- 
lum by the closer mesh and smaller diameter of the hyphae of 
which it is composed. It is about one fourth the width of the 
whole sterile part. 
Urnula Craterium, then, belongs to a totally different genus _ 
from Geopyxis carbonaria and must be restored as the type of the 
genus Urnula as Fries founded it. Indeed there are very strong 
reasons, as will be seen shortly, for placing it in an entirely dis 
tinct family from Geopyxis, so that the inclusion of the two fungi ie ; 
under the same genus appears almost absurd. 
3. Urnula terrestris (Niessl)* Sacc. This is a small rather leath- 
ery fungus 2~3 mm. in diameter with a very short stalk. Copie 
* Verh. Naturf. Ver. Briinn, 10: 63: 1872. — 
