138 THE NORTH AMERICAN SLIME-MOULDS 



2. Clastoderma Blytt. 



1880. Clastoderma Blytt, Bot. Zeit., XXXVIII., p. 343. 



Sporangium globose, distinct, stipitate ; the columella short or 

 obsolete ; the capillitium of few sparsely branched threads, 

 which bear at their tops the persistent fragments of the perid- 

 ium, but are not otherwise united. 



Distinguished from Lamproderma by the peculiar manner in 

 which the peridium is ruptured, and by the simplicity of the 

 scanty capillitium. So far there appears to be but a single 

 species. 



i. CLASTODERMA DEBARYANUM Blytt. 



PLATE XIII., Fig. 6. 



1880. Clastoderma debaryanum Blytt, Bot. Zeit., XXXVIII. , p. 343. 

 1886. Orthotrichia microcephala Wingate, Jour. Myc., II., p. 126. 



Sporangia scattered or gregarious, very minute, -Jg- to \ mm. 

 in diameter, the peridium fugacious, except the minute patches 

 that adhere to the capillitial branchlets, and the slight annulus 

 at the base of the columella ; stipe long, unequal, dark below, 

 above paler ; columella almost none, giving early rise to the 

 comparatively few slender threads which by their repeated 

 forking make up the capillitium ; spores globose, even, viola- 

 ceous, 8-9 /u,. 



Reported in the United States so far from Maine, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Ohio, and Illinois. 



The sporangia are very small, but beautiful, delicate little 

 structures found on the bark of living red oak in this country ; 

 in Norway it seems to have been seen first on a dead Polyporus. 

 Its minuteness doubtless causes it to be generally overlooked, 

 N.A.F., 2498. 



3. Lamproderma Rostafinski. 



1873. Lamproderma Rostafinski, Versuch, p. 7. 



Sporangia stipitate, globose, or ellipsoid ; columella cylindric 

 or inflated or clavate at the apex, scarcely attaining half the 

 height of the peridium ; peridium shining with metallic tints, 



