106 THE NORTH AMERICAN SLIME-MOULDS 



matter when he offers the description following: "Stipitata; acute 

 conica, patens; stipite subdistincto, lineari, brevi, valido. Albicans. 

 In foliis hederae putridts." {Elenchus Fungorum, Batsch, 1783, p. 

 121.) There is nothing definitive here but the one word "albicans" 

 quoted from Micheli. But this term is applicable the rather to C. 

 Tuinutum, the cups of which whiten with weathering. It may be, 

 as insisted by Fries {Syst. Myc, III., p. 149), that Micheli drew 

 crateriums; but if so, we cannot determine which species. 



The specific name here adopted was applied by Persoon probably 

 to this form; but Persoon likewise failed to distinguish the present 

 species from C. minutum (see Syn. Fung., pp. 183, 184), and Fries, 

 op. cit., p. 153. Ditmar, /. c, leaves no doubt as to what he figures 

 and describes, and accordingly the name he first correctly uses is here 

 adopted. 



Not common. New England, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Caro- 

 lina, Iowa, Colorado, Washington, California; reported from 

 Europe. 



4. Craterium cylindricum Massee. 



Plate XVI., Fig. 2. 



1873. Craterium minimum Berk. & C, Grev., II., p. 67. 



1892. Craterium cylindricum Massee, Mon., p. 268. 



1894. Craterium leucocephalum Ditm., List., Myc, p. 72, in part. 



1899. Craterium minimum Berk. & C, Macbr., N. A. S., p. 77. 



1911. Craterium leucocephalum van cylindricum List., Mycetozoa, 2nd 

 ed., p. 97 



Sporangia closely gregarious, very small, .5 yu. or less, slender, cylin- 

 dric, almost entirely white, stipitate, the peridium delicate, trans- 

 parent although calcareous nearly to the base, opening by a de- 

 hiscence regularly circumscissile ; stipe short, about one-third the 

 total height, clear orange-brown, somewhat furrowed, rising from an 

 indistinct hypothallus ; capillitium very lax, physaroid, the calcareous 

 nodules large, rounded, pure white, aggregated at the centre of 

 the cup; spore-mass black, spores minutely roughened, violaceous- 

 brown, 8-9 IX. 



This is the common form in the United States. Massee describes 

 it as C. cylindricum Mass., and it seems not to occur in Europe. 



