86 Mycetozoa of North America 



Illustration: Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. pi. 70. 



This species is not rare, and can be discovered if diligently 

 sought for in August and later. It forms small developments 

 which are difficult to see if wet. The capillitium with its pointed 

 branchlets and unusual calcareous formations is the important 

 diagnostic character. The lime-nodules are not exactly like the 

 lime-knots of Physarum. They appear to be free, or very lightly 

 attached to the points of the capillitium, as they may be removed 

 or shaken out. Eventually the entire capillitium becomes de- 

 tached from the sporangial wall. The rounded, cylindrical, 

 simple or branched plasmodiocarps usually have the transverse 

 plates, although they may be absent. In the confluent phases, 

 still showing traces of the cylindrical formation, they are some- 

 times represented by flattened fragments, but more often, and 

 always in the continuous depressed phases, they are replaced, in 

 great numbers, by the angular and branching nodules. 



Genus 7. CRATERIUM Trentepohl, in Roth, Cat. Bot. 1: 

 224. 1797. 



Sporangia stalked, goblet-shaped with a lid of thinner sub- 

 stance, or without a distinct lid and obovoid or subglobose; 

 sporangial wall charged with granules of lime, and cartilaginous 

 at least in the lower part. Capillitium consisting of hyaline 

 threads connecting large lime-knots, often combined in the center 

 to form a pseudo-columella. Stalk cartilaginous. 



Type species : Craterium pendunculatum Trent. 



Sporangia! wall smooth, glossy; lid distinct. 



Lime-knots white. 1. C. minulum 



Lime-knots yellow or brown. 2. C. concinnum 



Sporangial wall mealy, often rugose; lid less distinct or 

 indefinite. 

 Sporangia violet. 3. C. paraguayense 



Sporangia brown below, white above. 4. C. leucocephalutn 



Sporangia bright yellow. 5. C. aureum 



1. Craterium minutum (Leers) Fries, Syst. Myc. 3: 151. 1829. 



Peziza minuta Leers, Fl. Herborn. 277. 1775. 



Craterium pedunculatum Trent., in Roth, Cat. Bot. 1: 224. 1797. 



Plasmodium rich yellow (Lister). Total height 0.7 to 1.5 mm. 

 Sporangia goblet-shaped, funnel-shaped, or long-cylindrical, 

 stalked, erect, gregarious, 0.4 to 1.2 mm. high, smooth, yellow, 



