PHYSARELLA 71 



BadJiamia cnrtisii (Berk.) Rost. is according to Lister (Man., 

 p. 35) a sessile phase of this species. The only specimens 

 known are in the " Herbarium " of Berkeley, now at Kew. If 

 one might judge from the detailed descriptions given by Rosta- 

 finski and Massee, it would seem probable that B. curtisii is 

 a variety of B. lilacina, since both of these authors describe 

 the columella of B. cnrtisii as formed from the aggregation, at 

 the centre, of calcareous nodules, and not by the intrusion or 

 upward extension of the stipe as is the case always in B. rubi- 

 ginosa. If this should prove true, the absence of the species 

 from our American collections is explained. 



s. Physarella Peck. 



1882. Physarella Peck., Bull. Torr. Dot. Club, IX., p. 61. 



Sporangium pervious to the base, the interior walls forming 

 a persistent spurious columella ; capillitium composed of fila- 

 ments with here and there minute knot-like thickenings, straight 

 tubes containing lime granules extending from the exterior to 

 the interior walls of the sporangium, persistently attached to 

 the former. 



Such is Dr. Peck's original description of this most peculiar 

 genus. The form of the sporangium in the only species is very 

 variable, but in typical cases is vasiform, the peridial wall at 

 the apex introverted. The capillitium is like that of Tilma- 

 doche, except for the presence of the "straight tubes" empha- 

 sized in the original description. These are very remarkable 

 and at once diagnostic. They take origin in the sporangial 

 wall and pass across to the " columella " ; but at the dehiscence 

 of the sporangium, in typical cases, they remain attached at 

 the points of origin, projecting as stout spine-like processes. 



i. PHYSARELLA OBLONGA (Berk, and Cke.} Morgan. 

 PLATE VIII., Figs. 4, 4^, 4 , 4<r; PLATE XVI., Fig. i. 



1873. Trichamphora oblonga Berk, and Cke., Grey., II., p. 66. 

 1876. Tilmadoche oblonga (Berk, and Cke.) Rost., Mon. App., p. 13. 



