CRATERIUM 95 



Una, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, Washington, California; Europe, Asia, 

 Africa. 



3. Craterium leucocephalum (Pers.) Ditm. 



in Sturm, Deutsch. Fl. Pilze : 121. 1813. 

 PL VII, Figs. 133, 134, 135. 



1791. Stemonitis leucocephala Pers. in Gmel., Syst. Nat. 2 : 1467. 



1795. Arcyria leucocephala (Pers.) Hoffm., Fl. Crypt. Germ. 2, pi. 6, fig. 1. 



1821. Cyathus cinereus Purton, Midi. Flora 3 : 309. 



1833. Cupularia leucocephala (Pers.) Link, Handb. Gewach. 3 : 421. 



1833. Craterium xanthopus Walk., Fl. Crypt. Germ. 2 : 358. 



1836. Craterium deoperculatum Fr. in Weinm., Hymen. & Gast. 597. 



1844. Cupularia xanthopus (Wallr.) Rabenh., Deutsch. Krypt.-Fl. 1 : 271. 



1889. Physarum scyphoides Cke. & Balf. ex Massee, Jour. Myc. 5 : 185. 



1892. Craterium fuckelii Massee, Mon. 272. 



1896. Craterium convivale (Batsch) Morg., Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist. 19 : 14. 



Sporangia gregarious, short-cylindric or ovate, pure white above, 

 brown or reddish brown below, stipitate, occasionally sessile and some- 

 what plasmodiocarpous, dehiscence irregularly circumscissile, the 

 persistent portion of the peridium beaker-shaped; stipe short, stout, ex- 

 panded above into the base of the peridium, with which it is concolor- 

 ous; hypothallus scant; capillitium white or sometimes, toward the 

 center, brownish, the calcareous nodules large, conspicuous, and per- 

 sistent; spore-mass black; spores violaceous brown, minutely spinulose, 

 8-9 /*. 



Distinguished by its white cap from all except the next, from which 

 the markedly different form serves as the diagnostic feature. In some 

 gatherings, curious patches of yellow mark the otherwise snow-white 

 cap and sides; these are mere stains, or sometimes definite, crystalline, 

 flake-like bodies, standing out in plain relief on the sporangial wall, or 

 lurking in the larger nodules which are massed along the axis of the cup 

 to form the pseudocolumella here strongly developed. Mr. Lister 

 calls attention to these yellow flakes, and regards them as diagnostic. 

 European specimens often show the capillitium more or less yellow, 

 sometimes throughout. 



The nomenclature question is here somewhat difficult. Fries heads 

 his list of synonyms with Peziza convivalis Batsch. Batsch simply 

 described Micheli's figure. Now there is nothing in Micheli's figure 

 (pi. 86, fig. 14) to enable one to say with certainty which craterium 

 Micheli had in mind, if a craterium at all. Nor does Batsch help the 

 matter when he offers the description following: "Stipitata; acute- 

 conica, patens; stipite subdistincto, lineari, brevi, valido. Albicans. 

 Infoliis hedercE putridis." There is nothing definitive here but the one 



