264 A Monograph of the Myxogastres. 



Crater ium pyriforme, Rost., MOD., p. 120; Cke., Brit. Myx., 

 p. 19; Sacc., Syll, n. 1234. 



Craterium minutum, Rost., Mon., p. 120, f. 95; Cke., Myx. 

 Brit, p. 19, f. 95 ; Raunk, Myx. Dan., p. 79. 



Craterium pedunculatum, Sacc., Syll., 1233 ; Raunk., Myx. 

 Dan., p. 79. 



Exsicc. Cke., Fung. Brit., Ed. II, 208 (as C. minutum); 

 Fckl., Fung. Rhen., 1453; Roura., Fung. Gall., 2957; Syd., 

 Myc. March, 489; Desm, Cr. Fr, Ser. L, 369; Fckl., Fung. 

 Rhen., 1454 (as Craterium pyriforme). 



On leaves, twigs, bark, moss, &c. Britain (Kew, Weybridge, 

 Penzance, Apethorpe, Bungay, Lyme Regis, Shere, Scarboro', 

 Carlisle, Abergaveimy, Appin, Glamis, N. B.); Germany; 

 Hungary; France; Italy; Finland; Belgium; Bavaria; Sweden; 

 United States ; Cuba ; Brazil ; N. Zealand ; Australia ; Natal ; 

 Tasmania. 



After a careful examination of numerous specimens from 

 Europe and other parts of the world, I find that the only course 

 left is' to combine the three species and five varieties acknow- 

 ledged by Saccardo, into one species characterized by the sharply- 

 differentiated operculum, which is usually chalk-white, and 

 flat or slightly convex, and the dull-coloured sporangium. In 

 the above idea I am confirmed, or rather anticipated, by Mr. 

 A. Lister, who, during a critical examination of the Myxogastres 

 in the Kew Herbarium, has attached the following note to 

 the specimen-sheet of (7. vulgare. " I have added to the col- 

 lection some specimens of Craterium vulgare, representing a 

 few varieties in form and colour from a heap of dead leaves 

 in my grounds at Lyme Regis. The white form is abundant 

 in such localities, and given in several of the Kew specimens, 

 is the result of age and exposure, on originally more deeply 

 coloured, but pale sporangia. I have cultivated a large 

 number of sporangia from orange-yellow plasmodium, and 

 gathered many thousands of the ripe fruits during the last 

 three years from this particular heap. Among them I find 

 all the characters given in the description of Rostafinski's three 

 species, C. vulgare, C. pyrifwim, and C. minutum, with (as it 



