Ob THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



heather, which at once suggested the Welsh gathering; a small 

 part of the plasmodium was taken, and the rest left until the 

 following day, when our patch was ripe and of a warm clay-colour; 

 all the remainder was removed and kept in a moist receptacle, 

 where it matured in the course of the next day. The crowded 

 sporangia were irregular both in shape and size, varying from 0-3 

 to 0-7 mm. diam. They are somewhat hemispherical, but angular 

 from mutual pressure. Although a fairly abundant crop, it was so 

 inconspicuous among the brown heather and moss in its ripe state 

 that, if the spot had not been well marked, it could scarcely have 

 been detected. As in the case of Badhcniua lilaciiia, before referred 

 to, it is the bright colour of the plasmodium that catches the eye 

 on the open moor. This gathering is identical with the specimen 

 from Wales in almost every respect ; the membranous sporangium- 

 wall is beset, as in the latter, with clear brown round granules, and 

 the very slender colourless capillitium is often beaded with scattered 

 granules, but less so than in the Welsh specimen. The only differ- 

 ence between the two gatherings is the more ochraceous colour of 

 the sporangia and the absence of an abundant hypothallus in the 

 Aberdeen example, and this may be accounted for by the latter 

 having matured under natural and undisturbed conditions ; the 

 spores are on the average rather smaller in the Scotch than in the 

 Welsh specimen ; they measure 8-9 /x as opposed to 10-12 /x diam., 

 but, as they vary in different sporangia and exceptional spores attain 

 to 13 fx, this difference can be of no specific importance. There is 

 no question that they are both the same species ; whether they are 

 the same as Schroeter's Chundrlodenna simplex, "with globose and 

 sohtary sporangia, growing on old stumps," cannot now be deter- 

 mined in the absence of the type. Since the above was sent to 

 press, I have examined a specimen of this species received from 

 Mr. H. Bilgram. He collected it on dead leaves and sticks in 

 Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa., in September, 1900. It re- 

 sembled the gathering at Aberdeen in every respect, except that 

 the round lime-granules in the wall and thickened base of the 

 sporangia are lighter in colour ; the specimen is consequently pale 

 brown as seen under a 2 in. objective, or whity-brown — to use a 

 familiar term which accurately describes it. The sporangia are 

 crowded, of the same shape and size as figured in the plate ; the 

 spores measure 9 ix diam. 



Chondrioderma Lyallii Mass. Mr. Fries has done me the favour 

 to send a typical specimen of 0. Lyallii obtained on herbaceous 

 stems at Frostviken, Sweden, in September, 1899. Another good 

 gathering was made by Mr. G. H. Fox, at 7000-8000 ft. alt., on 

 a mountain near Saas, Switzerland, in June, 1899. The large 

 sporangia vary in colour from white to ochraceous, and are seated 

 on a white hypothallus, which in some cases is produced into a 

 short thick stalk ; the columella is generally broad and more or less 

 hemispherical, but in some sporangia it is narrowly cylindrical, 

 about 0-6 mm. long, and occasionally contracted and limeless in the 

 upper part. 



