216 THE MYXOMYCETES 



small, black, more or less globular, prominent, connected by trans- 

 parent threads; free ends usually few, occasionally fairly numerous; 

 spores in mass olivaceous-ochraceous, under the lens pallid, globose, 

 almost smooth, 5-7 11. 



Very common eastward and south, on the weathered surface of rot- 

 ten wood. Generally easily recognized by its very long stipe, small 

 globose sporangium dotted with numerous small roundish nodules pro- 

 jecting plainly above the general surface. The obconic calyculus is 

 always represented in the outline if not in definite structure. 



New England and Ontario to Washington, south to Tennessee and 

 Missouri, Argentina; Europe, South Africa, Ceylon, Japan. 



15. Cribraria aurantiaca Schrad. 



Nov. Gen. PI. 5, pi. 1, figs. 3, 4. 1797. 

 PI. XIV, Figs. 357, 358. 



1797. Cribraria vulgaris Schrad., Nov. Gen. PI. 6, pi. 1, fig. 5. 



1801. Cribraria vulgaris Schrad. var. aurantiaca (Schrad.) Pers., Syn. Meth. 



Fung. 194. 

 1808. Trichia rufescens (Pers.) Poiret var. aurantiaca (Schrad.) Poiret, in 



Lam. Encycl. 8 : 31. 



Sporangia gregarious, spherical, 0.5-0.9 mm. in diameter, dusky or 

 yellowish, stipitate, nodding; calyculus variable, generally prominent, 

 marked by delicate radiating veins, the margin denticulate, the teeth 

 numerous and slender, supporting the well-defined globose net ; network 

 made up of very tenuous threads, forming rather small irregular brown- 

 ish nodules and showing only here and there a free extremity; stipe 

 generally short, two or three times the diameter of the sporangium, 

 sometimes longer, tapering upward, brown, slender, arcuate above; 

 spore-mass yellow or ochraceous; spores by transmitted light colorless, 

 5-6 fx, almost smooth. 



This widely distributed and very variable species is generally recog- 

 nized by the large sporangia, comparatively short stipe, simple net, 

 and more or less orange color. The color is an uncertain thing even in 

 the sporangia which rise from one Plasmodium. Schrader, however, 

 made this feature so far diagonostic that he placed only the more pro- 

 nouncedly yellow forms in the species C. aurantiaca and set off as C. 

 vulgaris forms in which more dusky tints prevail. The dark colored 

 forms have also usually longer stipes, but so much is dependent upon 

 the climatic conditions prevalent at the time of fruiting, that this 

 feature also is indeterminate. Rostafinski's figs. 21 and 26 of pi. 2, 

 show the characteristic nodules and the typical net structure. It is 



