White : The Nidulakiaceae of North America 273 



ments, opening more or less irregularly by the breaking away or 

 falling to pieces of the walls at maturity, having no true epi- 

 phragm : sporangioles enveloped in mucus and not attached in any 

 way to the inner surface of the peridium. 



The history of the genus Gramdaria, though not as long as 

 that of the first two genera belonging to this family, appears to have 

 become more involved and complicated, very probably owing to 

 the fact that the species of Graiiiilaria are as a rule, rarer, and less 

 conspicuous than the species of Cyathia and Cmcibulum. Micheli * 

 in 1729 figured " Cyathoides sciitcllatiim^ which is unquestionably 

 a true Gramdaria, and the reason why this species has since been 

 placed under Cyadius by Roth t and later by Tulasne, it hard 

 to understand. Micheli, in writing of this genus, says " [fructus] 

 vel prope centrum, vel ad circumferentiam brevissimo pediculo 

 seu umbilicali funicolo firmantur," but of the figure of three spor- 

 angioles of " Cyadioidcs scutedatian" only one has a short lateral 

 attachment, and that much shorter than in the figures of the spor- 

 angioles of the three other species represented. Fries J says of 

 his second division, which contains true Grannlaria, that the spor- 

 angioles have no umbilicus or umbilical thread, but are attached by 

 the margin. Tulasne writes that notwithstanding these authorities, 

 the lateral position of a funiculus seems very problematical in the 

 genus Cyathia, and that the sporangioles of the specimens of Gran- 

 ularia which he has studied do not adhere any more by the edge 

 than by any other point, either to the mucilage in which they are 

 immersed or to the peridium. This idea must have arisen from 

 the fact that the mucus contiguous to the walls of the peridium 

 dries up a little quicker than that in the center of the cup and for 

 this reason, several sporangioles appear to be fixed by their outer 

 margin, while they are still loose in the center of the cup. But 

 this does not explain why " scutellaris " has been made a species 

 of Cyadua. 



No other writer seems to have mentioned this plant after 

 MicheH until 1 791, when Roth described a new genus Gramdaria, 

 as follows : " Fungus subrotundus, granis mucilagine immersis 



*Nov. PI. Gen. 222. pi. 102. f. 4. 1729. 

 t Roth, Cat. Bot. I : 237. 1797. 

 J Syst. Myc. 2 : 300. 1822. 



