CHONDRIODERMA.] PHYSARACE.E. 81 



connecting a. genuinum with /3. deplanatum, x 2 ; e. plasmocliocarp of the 

 same gathering, x 20 (Chiselhurst, England, B. M. 27). 



Rostafmski's type specimen of C. niveum in Strassb. Herb., from 

 Giromagny, has subglobose, crowded sporangia, with a fragile, egg- 

 shell-like outer wall ; the inner wall is membranous, more persistent, 

 orange at the base ; the columella is orange, sometimes scarcely deve- 

 loped ; the capillitium threads are rigid and warted. The specimen 

 in Berkeley's collection from Linlithgow, named by him Did&rma 

 cyanascens Fr. and by Rostafinski C. niveum (K. 1435), is a plasmodio- 

 carp form, with the lower part of the inner wall and base orange, and 

 the columella depressed ; it has the same rigid warted threads as in 

 the Strassburg type. There is no type specimen from Fries of 

 Diderma deplanatum in the Strassburg or British collections, but his 

 description (Syst. Myc.,iii., p. 110) applies well to Berkeley's specimen 

 named D. deplanatum Fr. from Appin (K. 410), which is accurately 

 described in English Flora (/.e.), and is undoubtedly the same species 

 as the Linlithgow specimen of C. niveum. The sporangia are branching 

 plasmodiocarpSj forming, as Berkeley says, " reticulate masses, the 

 outer wall thick, white, the inner very thin, hyaline '' ; the columella 

 is only represented by the thickened orange-brown base of the spor- 

 angium ; the capillitium consists of rather delicate purplish branching 

 threads, with scattered wart-like thickenings ; the spores measure 9 p,. 

 The type of C. j>h>/*aroides Rost., Mon., p. 170 (syn. Diderma depln- 

 iKiti.nn Fr., Chondrioderma deplanatum Rost., Mon., App., p. 17) 

 is not represented in the Strassburg or British collections. Diderum 

 albeseens Phill. closely resembles the Strassburg type of C. niveum 

 in its globose, crowded sporangia, with orange-brown inner wall and 

 columella ; the capillitium is of rigid warted threads, intermixed with 

 others more slender ; the spores are identical with those of Rostafinski's 

 type, purple-brown, 9 to 11 ft diam. ; it is evidently the same species. 

 The specimen here figured from Chiselhurst, named D. dejiluimlinn Fr. 

 by Broome (B. M. 27), connects all these forms ; its sporangia are 

 either globose, or elongated plasmodiocarps, with capillitium exactly 

 of the Strassburg type. 



Hub. On dead leaves, sticks, etc. Chislehurst, Kent (B. M. 27) ; 

 Carlisle (L:B.M.58) ; Appin, Scotland (K. 410) ; Linlithgow (K. 1435) ; 

 Vosges Mts. (Strassb. Herb.) ; Christiania (L:B.M.58) ; California 

 (L:B.M.58) ; Brit. Columbia (K. 379). 



8. C. Lyallii Mass., Mon., p. 201 (1892). Plasmodium ? Spor- 

 angia subglobose, sessile or shortly stipitate, aggregated, seated 

 on a more or less strongly developed white hypothallus, 1 to 1*5 

 mm. diarn., nearly smooth, roughened with minute scattered 

 prominences ; sporangium- wall of two layers, the outer thick, 

 densely charged with lime-granules, separating from the mem- 

 branous inner wall, which is firm and usually orange at the base. 

 Stalk short, stout, rugose, white or ochraceous. Columella 

 cylindrical, or clavate and stipitate, ochraceous, sometimes at- 

 taining two-thirds the height of the sporangium. Capillitium of 

 rigid dark violet-brown threads, branching and anastomosing, 1-5 

 to 2 fji broad. Spores dark violet-brown, spinose, 11 to 15 /x diam. 



Plate XXXII., A. a. sporangia, x 20 ; b. capillitium with fragment of 

 sporangium-wall and spores, x 280 ; c. spore, x 600 (Switzerland). 



Hob. On dead grass. Switzerland (L:B.M.59) ; Oregon Boundary, 

 U.S.A. (K. 380). 



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