176 ENDCSPOREAE [CRIBRARIA 



b. Sporangia dark or red-brown — 



a. Stalk two or three times the height of the sporangium ; 

 plasmodic granules dark, 1 to 2 ft diam. 



10. C. pyriformis 



b. Stalk four to six times the height of the sporangium — 



Cup one-third the height of the sporangium, nodes 

 polygonal. 11. C. languescens 



Cup minute or absent, nodes rounded, prominent. 



12. C. microcarpa 



c. Sporangia purple — 



Cup one-third the height of the sporangium, 0-7 mm. 

 diam. 13. C. purpurea 



Cup one-half of the sporangium, 0-5 mm. diam. 



14. C. elegans 



d. Sporangia violet-blue, 025 mm. diam. 15. C. violacea 



1. C. argillacea Pers. in Roemer N. Mag. Bot., i. 91 (1794). 

 Plasmodium lead-coloured or purplish-olive. Total height 

 075 to 1*5 mm. Sporangia globose, crowded, stalked or nearly 

 sessile, 0*5 to 08 mm. diam., when immature lilac or lead- 

 coloured, at length clay-coloured ; cup imperfectly defined ; 

 sporangium-wall subpersistent throughout, delicately mem- 

 branous above, stouter towards the base, reticulated with 

 strongly or faintly thickened bands, which are studded with 

 dark plasmodic granules 1 //. diam., and form a net with hardly 

 expanded nodes and subquadrangular meshes about 0*1 mm. 

 wide. Stalk cylindrical, 0*1 to 0*8 mm. high, furrowed, dark 

 brown, arising from a well-developed hypothallus. Spores 

 ochraceous, nearly smooth, 5 to 6 fx diam. — Rost. Mon., p. 238 ; 

 Mass. Mon., 65 ; Macbr. N. Am. Slime-Moulds, 161. Stemo- 

 nitis argillacea Pers. in Gmel. Syst. Nat., ii. 1469 (1791). 

 S. sphaerocarpa Schrank in Roem. & Ust. Mag. Bot., xii. 20 

 (1790) ? Cribraria micropus Schrad. Nov. Gen. PL, 3 

 (1797). Licea brunnea Preuss in Linnaea, xxvi. 709 (1853) ? 



PI. 138. — a. sporangia (England) ; b. net of sporangium-wall and stalk ; c. spores 

 and plasmodic granules ; d. spores. 



This species varies much in the extent to which the net of the 

 sporangium-wall is developed. In the usual form the bands are dark 

 brown, well-defined, hardly expanded at the nodes, often stouter 

 towards the base ; but in some gatherings the thickenings are faint 

 and broad, aud the wall of the sporangium is nearly uniform in texture, 

 in which case it closely resembles the var. simplex of Lindbladia effusa. 



Hab. On dead wood : common in Europe and the British Isles. — 

 Richmond, Surrey (B.M. 1422) ; Birmingham (B.M. 1424) ; Leighton, 

 Beds (B.M. 1423) ; Bovnton, Yorks (B.M. 1044) ; North AVales (B.M. 

 2709); Aboyne, Scotland (B.M. 243); Ireland (B.M. 2712); France 

 (B.M. 2713); Germany (B.M. 2267); Norway (Herb. Christiania) ; 



