TILMADOCHE 59 



1791. Stemonitis alba (Bull.), Gmelin, Syst. Nat., p. 1469. 



1795. Physariim nutans Pers., Ust. Ann. Bot., XV., p. 6. 



1803. Trichia cernua Schum., Saell., II., p. 241. 



1829. Physarum certmnm (Schum.) (in part), Fr., Syst. Myc., III., p. 130. 



1849. Tilmadoche cernua (Schum.) Fr., Summ. Veg., p. 454. 



1873. Tilmadoche nutans (Pers.) Rost., Versuch, p. 10. 



Sporangia gregarious, depressed spherical, stipitate, umbili- 

 cate, gray or white, thin-walled, nodding; stipe long, tapering 

 upward, brown or ashen white above, lightly striate, graceful ; 

 capillitium abundant, threads delicate, intricately combined in 

 loose persistent network with occasional minute, rounded, or 

 elongate calcareous nodules ; spores minutely roughened, glo- 

 bose, about 10 /A. 



The nodding, lenticular, umbilicate sporangium, barely at- 

 tached to the apiculate stipe, is sufficient to distinguish this 

 elegant little species, recognized and quite aptly characterized 

 by mycologists for more than one hundred years. As Splicero- 

 carpus alba Bulliard first prescribed the limits by which the 

 species is at present bounded. The description by Fries {Syst. 

 Myc., III., 128) is especially graphic : " Peridium very thin, in 

 form quite constantly lenticular, umbilicate at base, at first 

 smooth then uneven, generally laciniate dehiscent, the segments 

 persistent at least at base." 



The stipe is usually white above, fuscous below, at the apex 

 almost evanescent ; hence the cernuous sporangia. The same 

 character is less strikingly manifest in the species next following. 



Widely distributed in the eastern United States, apparently 

 rare in the west. 



3. TILMADOCHE VIRIDIS (Bull.} Saccardo. 



PLATE VIII., Figs. 8, 8 a, 8 b, 8 c. 



1791. Sphcsrocarpus viridis Bulliard, Champ., t. 407. Fig. i. 



1791. Sphtzrocarpus lutens Bulliard. Champ., t. 407, Fig. ii. 



1791. Sphczrocarpus aurantius Bulliard, Champ., t. 484, Fig. ii. 



1791. Stemonitis viridis (Bull.) Gmel., Sys. Nat., p. 1469. 



1801. Physarum nutans, luteum, viride, etc. (Bull.) Pers., Syn., pp. 171- 

 173- 



