106 THE NORTH AMERICAN SLIME-MOULDS 



Sporangia crowded, generally in dense colonies, globose, 

 smooth, ochraceous white, stipitate, the peridium thick cartilagi- 

 nous, splitting from above into several petal-like lobes, which 

 become speedily reflexed exposing the swarthy spore-mass, the 

 inner peridium not discoverable, inseparable ; stipe concolorous, 

 about equal to the sporangium ; hypothallus, generally well 

 developed, but thin, membranaceous, common to all the spo- 

 rangia; columella prominent, globose or cylindric, often con- 

 stricted below, and prolonged upward almost to the top of the 

 spore-case ; capillitium of slender, delicate, sparingly branched 

 threads ; spores dark violaceous brown, studded with scattered 

 warts, 10-11 //.. 



Not uncommon, especially on rotten oak logs. Easily recog- 

 nized by the peculiar form of the fruit, spherical before dehis- 

 cence, floriform after. Unlike most species, this form often 

 fruits in dark places, in the interior of a log, even in the 

 ground. 



New England, Ontario to Iowa and Nebraska, and south. 



4. Lepidoderma De Bary. 



1858. Lepidoderma De Bary, MS. Rost, Versuch, p. 13. 



Sporangia stalked or sessile ; peridium cartilaginous, adorned 

 without with large scales consisting of calcium bicarbonate, 

 superficial or shut in lenticular cavities ; capillitium non- 

 calcareous. 



A single species, 



i. LEPIDODERMA TIGRINUM (Schrad.} Rost. 



PLATE XIV., Fig. 7. 



1797. Didyminm tigrinum Schrader, Nov. Gen. Plantarum, p. 22. 

 1873. Lepidoderma tigrinum (Schrad.) Rost., Versitch., p. 13. 



Sporangia scattered, rather large, hemispherical depressed, 

 stipitate, umbilicate beneath, the peridium shining, olivaceous 

 or purplish, tough, covered more or less abundantly with angular 

 scales ; the stipe stout, furrowed, dark brown, but containing 



