White : The Nidulariaceae of North America 255 



Peridium composed of one homogeneous layer ; spores not mixed with filaments. 



II. Crucibulum. 

 Sporangioles not attached to the inner wall of the peridium. 



Peridium thick, opening by a regular definite mouth. III. NiDULA. 



Peridium thin, rupturing irregularly. IV. Granularia. 



I. Cyathia p. Br., Civ. and Nat. Hist. Jamaica, 78. 1756 

 Cyathus Hall. Stirp. Helvet. 3: 127. 1768 



Peridium composed of three distinct but closely connected 

 layers. Mouth at first closed by a membrane (epiphragm), usu- 

 ally white, opening at maturity; sporangioles flattened, umbilicate 

 beneath, attached to the inner wall of the peridium by a complex 

 elastic cord (funiculus), and with thick horny filaments intermixed 

 with the spores. 



Clusius,"^ in 1601, made the first mention of a Cyathia under 

 the name of fungus minimus avMVjao^, and described it in Latin, 

 the following being a free translation of the entire paragraph : 

 " Moreover this fungus, which I will call anonymous, is very dif- 

 ferent from the preceding ones, and I consider it to be the smallest 

 of all, for it is barely half an inch high. In the fall a great many 

 grow, without petiole, on wooden boards away from dust and sand. 

 They have the color of cinders or are of a lifeless color. The shape* 

 which is so small, appears to be undeveloped, scarcely as large 

 and as thick as the top of a little finger. Sometimes they grow 

 alone or when in numbers two, three or four adhering together, 

 and when ripe, they throw off the top part and appear full of a 

 viscous juice, and of seeds which are about the size of the seeds of 

 cyclamen, but have the outline of small fungi and are apparently 

 cinder-colored. There is no doubt that this fungus grows in 

 Italy, for I remember that a friend of mine sent me, once upon a 

 time from there, some of these seeds, dried and with a certain 

 strange name, asking me if I could find out what they were. For 

 there are certain characters who endeavor to catch and buy praise 

 from the ignorance of others." 



There seem to be no intermediate references to this plant until 

 1 67 1, when Bauhin f mentioned " Fungus minimus lignelis tabellis 

 areolarum hortorum adnascens." Mentzel,t in 1682 first figured 



* Rar. Plant. Hist, cclxxxvii. i6oi. 



t Pinax, Lib. X., Sec. 5, no. 39, 374. 1671. 



% Ind. Nom. Plant. Univ. //. 6. 1682. 



