260 White : The Nidulariaceae of North America 



Peridia 10-15 mm. high, 8-10 mm. wide at the top, 2-4 mm. 

 at the base, usually straight trumpet-shaped, very gradually spread- 

 ing toward the top ; outer surface of the peridium dark brown, 

 shaggy fibrillose ; inner surface brown or grayish-brown, shiny, 

 striate-sulcate for about one half the height of the peridium, be- 

 coming smooth at the base ; mouth densely clothed with a circle 

 of stiff regular bristles ; sporangioles darkish, 2 mm. in diameter, 

 shiny, depressed beneath, and somewhat angular from the pressure 

 of one upon the other; spores 12-18 ji long, 6-9 11 wide, thick- 

 walled, hyaline, somewhat crescent-shaped. [PI. 14./. 11-14 ; pi. 

 18. f. 1-6.) 



Growing singly and in clusters, on sticks, bark, etc. 



Exsicc. : ElHs, North American Fungi, 729. 



New York : Underivood, Tooke, Clinton, Brown, Mnrrill ; 

 Maine: Harvey; Connecticut: White; Pennsylvania: Gentry, 

 Lloyd; Ohio: Lloyd, James ; Georgia: Undei"wood ; Alabama: 

 Earle ; Iowa: Langlois ; Wisconsin: Williams; Indiana: Un- 

 dcriuood ; Montana: Anderson, no. 601; Colorado: Bethel; 

 Washington : Suksdorf ; Canada : Dearncss ; Puerto Rico : Un- 

 derzvood & Griggs ; Mexico : Egeling. 



Tulasne * has given an account of the development of this 

 species from which the following is freely translated : 



The young plants arise on the thick felt-like mycelium in the 

 shape of small cylindrical jelly-like masses. They are at first 

 white and smooth, gradually changing to a brown color and their 

 surface becomes somewhat scaly. The three coats which com- 

 pose the peridium are indicated at this stage, when the outer 

 brownish scaly portion begins to form itself into the outer coat, 

 while the walls of the white glutinous inner substance become 

 differentiated from the fruiting portion into a very thm membrane 

 which encloses these parts, a thin portion of the glutinous mem- 

 brane remaining between these two coats welding them together 

 and so forming the triple peridial wall. It is now that the 

 sporangioles begin their growth, gradually absorbing the sur- 

 rounding substance into themselves, so that when the plant is 

 mature and gradually opens, the sporangioles alone remain within 

 the cup attached to the sides of the peridium by means of a funic- 

 ulus of a complicated structure. The sporangioles are in most 



*Ann. Sci. Nat. III. i : 50-54.//. 3 ; pi. 4./. 1-3 : pi. 8. f. 1-12. 1844. 



