70 ENDOSPORE.E, [CRATERIUM. 



B. Sporangium- wall mealy or rugose : 



Sporangia violet. 3. C. rubescens 



Sporangia brown, powdered with white on the upper part. 



4, C, leucocephalum 

 Sporangia yellow : 



Sporangia ovoid ; spores 7 to 9 /a. 5. C. mutaUle 



Sporangia globose; spores 10 to 12 /*. 6. C. citrinellum 



1. C. pedunculatum Trentepohl, in Roth, Catal. Bot., i., p. 224 

 (1797). Plasmodium rich yellow, amongst dead leaves. Total 

 height 0'7 to 1*5 mm. Sporangia goblet-shaped, stipitate, erect, 

 gregarious, 0'4 to 1'2 mm. high, smooth, pale ochraceous, nut- 

 brown or olive-brown ; lid either convex, flat, or depressed below 

 the rim, white or concolorous with the sporangium. Sporangium- 

 wall of two or three layers, the outer cartilaginous, thickened 

 at the rim, translucent below and continued into the trans- 

 lucent stalk, the inner layer densely charged with white lime- 

 granules; lime almost absent in the olive-brown form. Stalk 

 equal, plicate, 0'3 to 0'5 mm. long, varying from dark brown to 

 yellowish, usually darker than the sporangium, rising from a 

 circular hypothallus. Columella represented by a central mass 

 of confluent lime-knots, not always present. Capillitium of large 

 white lime-knots connected by delicate colourless or yellow 

 threads. Spores clear violet-brown, minutely warted, 8 to 9 /x, 

 diam. Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 385. Craterium 

 vulgare Ditm., in Sturm, Deutsch. Fl., Pilze, i., p. 17, t. 9 (1813) ; 

 Host., Mon., p. 118, figs. 94, 96; Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 18. C. 

 pyriforme Ditm., Lc., p. 19, t. 10; Host., Mon., p. 120; Cooke, 

 Myx. Brit., p. 19. Peziza minuta Leers, Fl. Herbo., p. 277 (1775). 



C. minutum Fr., Syst. Myc., iii., p. 151; Host., Mon., p. 120; 

 Cooke, Myx., p. 19. C. (Erstedtii Host., Mon., p. 120, fig. 99; 

 Mass., Mon., p. 266. C. Friesii Host., Mon., p. 122, fig. 105. 

 C. confusum Mass., Mon., p. 263. 



Plate XXVI., A. a. sporangia of various forms, x 20 ; T). capillitium 

 and spores, x 280 ; c. spore, x 600 (England). 



Observations of the development of sporangia from extensive plas- 

 modia in leaf -heaps and in cultivations show that the varieties in 

 shape and colour described by Rostafinski under the names of C. vul- 

 gure, C. pyriforme, C. minutum, and C. Friesii may arise from one 

 source, and no specific characters appear to exist to separate the four 

 forms. In examination of the type specimen of C. (Erstedtii in the 

 Strassburg Herbarium no character was observed to distinguish it from 

 C. pedunculatum ; the sporangia are pyrif orm, and yellow brown ; no 

 lid remains attached to a sporangium, but it is described as white ; the 

 capillitium resembles that met with in most forms of C. pedunculatum 

 a distinct pseudo-columella is present. The specimens from America 

 are mostly of the type in the Strassburg collection named C. vulgare 

 var. rerum (or genuinum). They are of a dark olive colour, somewhat 

 small in size, and without a pseudo-columella. The most frequent 

 form in Europe appears to be the var. confusum in the Strassburg 

 Herb. ; it is broader in shape, and yellow-brown. When exposed to 



