474 W. C. Sturgis — Type- Specimens of Myxomycetes. 



only 8/i, in diameter, and gives this chai-acter and the less crowded 

 habit as his reason for retaining C crustaceum^ Pk. as a species dis- 

 tinct from C. glohosuin, Rost. It will be seen, therefore, that the 

 confusion has arisen from a misconception, not of Peck's species, but 

 of Rostafinski's. That author gives 8.3/x as the size of the spores of 

 C. globosum^ and if that be correct, then it is certainly difficult to 

 regard C. crustaceum, Pk. as the same species. But in the Appendix 

 to his Monograjih, Rostafinski describes a species, C. affine, Rost., 

 with spores 10.8-14/a in diameter. This species is certainly very 

 closely related to C. globosicm, and Lister (Mon., p. 78), as the result 

 of his examination of the type-specimens of both, states that they 

 are identical, and, moreover, that the spores of C. glohosum actually 

 measure 11-18/a in diameter. 



Turning now to Peck's type of C. crnstaceu7n, it may be described 

 as follows : Sporangia white, smooth, 0.5-0.7""" in diameter, globose 

 or obovate, angled by mutual pressure, densely crowded upon a 

 strongly developed, white, calcareous, almost spongy hypothallus. 

 Wall double, the outer composed of spherical lime-granules, brittle, 

 widely separated from the membranous, gray, iridescent inner wall. 

 Columella small but prominent, subglobose or clavate, white. Capilli- 

 tium abundant, a network of pale violet, branching and anastomosing 

 threads with occasional fusiform expansions filled with lime-granules. 

 Spores dark purplish-brown, densely spinulose, 11.2-14.2/u, in diam- 

 eter. (PI. LX, figs. TO & 11.) That this description applies to 

 Chondrioderma glohosum^ Rost., as iinderstood by Lister, there can 

 be no possible doubt. Moreover, Peck's specimen is absolutely iden- 

 tical wnth an authentic specimen of that species, collected by Mr. A. 

 P. Morgan and sent to me by Mr. Lister. 



It may not be out of place to discuss in this connection a peculiar 

 Chondrioderma which was sent to me recently by Professor Peck. 

 It forms, on dead fern-stalks, an effused crust consisting of a thin, 

 whitish, wrinkled hypothallus, bearing closely aggregated subglobose 

 or flattened sporangia of a whitish color with a faint pinkish tinge. 

 The outer wall is rugose, almost farinaceous, wrinkled, very fragile, 

 never widely separated from the membranous inner wall, and some- 

 times inseparable from it. The columella is pulvinate and the capil- 

 litium scanty. Judged by external characters, the specimen might 

 well pass for G. spumarioides, Rost. But the spores, instead of being 

 of the pale color and small size characteristic of that species, are 

 dark violet-brown, spinulose, darker and more distinctly spinulose on 

 one side, and measure 11.2-15/1, in diameter. These spores are idcn- 



