THE DISCOMYCETES OF EASTERN IOWA. 279 



Gregarious or scattered, very minute, scarcely visible with 

 the lens, 70 to 90 mm. in diameter, partly immersed, yellow- 

 ish brown; asci few in each plant, 3 to 5, broad, acute at the 

 base, not stipitate, 70 to 76 by 32 to 35, many spored; sporidia 

 minute, elliptical, 5 to 7 by 3 microns; paraphyses not distinct. 



Habitat — Grown on old cow clung in the laboratory, winter, 

 Iowa City. 



Plants are very small and could not be distinguished except 

 as they were collected accidently with other specimens. The 

 number of asci in each plant is small and varies in different 

 cases but is generally from 3 to 5. The entire ascus is filled 

 with the spores which seem to be arranged radially around 

 the outside of the ascus. The exact number of the spores in 

 the ascus could not be determined but there are more than 

 64. The paraphyses if present were indistinct. 



Ryparobius crustaceus (FckL) Rehm. 

 Plate XVII, fig. n. 



L888 Ryparobius crustaceus Saccardo, Sylloge Fung. , VIII, p. 539. 

 1897 Ryparobius crustaceus Engler-Prantl, Pflan. Famil., I, i, p. L90. 



Gregarious or scattered, sessile, hemispherical then de- 

 pressed, very small, not more than .5 mm. in diameter, gener- 

 ally less, dirty white or slightly yellowish, hymenium convex, 

 papillate with emergent asci; asci very broad, curved, stipitate, 

 from 10 to 15 in each plant, or sometimes more, 100 by 30 

 microns, stem 12 to 14 by 4 microns; sporidia elliptical, when 

 mature i-guttulate, 64 in each ascus, 10 by 6 microns; para- 

 physes numerous, filiform, branched. 



Habitat — Grown on old cow dung in culture, winter, Iowa 

 City. 



Plants are very small and difficult to see but may be easily 

 seen with the aid of the lens. The asci are very large and 

 not very numerous in each plant. The spores being borne 

 in a mass are not very easily counted. If one ascus be separ- 

 ated from the rest on a slide, and crushed under a cover until 

 the spores are all in one plane the}' can be easily counted. 



