70 
ENDOSPORE/E. 
[CEATERIUM. 
B. Sporangium- wall mealy or rugose : — 
Sporangia violet. 3. C. rubescens 
Sporangia brown, powdered with white on the upper part. 
4. C, leucoce2?halum 
Sporangia yellow : — 
, Sporangia ovoid ; spores 7 to 9 /a. 5. C. mutahile 
Sporangia globose; spores 10 to 12 /x. 6, C citrirtellv/ni 
1. C. pedunculatum Trentepohl, in Roth, Catal. Bot., i., p. 224 
(1797). Plasmodium rich yellow, amongst dead leaves. Total 
height 0-7 to 1*5 mm. Sporangia goblet-shaped, stipitate, erect, 
gregarious, 0"4 to 1*2 mm. high, smooth, pale ochraceous, nut- 
brown or ohve-brown ; lid either convex, flat, or depressed below 
the rim, white or concolorous with the sporangium. Sporangium- 
wall of two or three layers, the outer cartilaginous, thickened 
at the rim, translucent below and continued into the trans- 
lucent stalk, the inner layer densely charged with white lime- 
granules ; lime almost absent in the olive-brown form. Stalk 
equal, phcate, 0"3 to 0*5 mm. long, varying from dark brown to 
yellowish, usually darker than the sporangium, rising from a 
circular hypothallus. Columella represented by a central mass 
of confluent lime-knots, not always present. Capillitium of lai'ge 
white lime-knots connected by delicate colourless or yellow 
threads. Spores clear violet-brown, minutely warted, 8 to 9 ju, 
diam. — Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 385. Crateriwm 
vulgare Ditm., in Sturm, Deutsch. Fl., PUze, i., p. 17, t. 9 (1813) ; 
Rost., Mon., p. 118, figs. 94, 96; Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 18. C. 
pyriforme Ditm., I.e., Tp. 19, t. 10; Rost;, Mon., p. 120j Cooke, 
Myx. Brit., p. 19. Peziza minuta Leers, Fl. Herbo., p. 277 (1775). 
C. minutum Fr., Syst. Myc, iii., p. 151; Rost., Mon., p. 120; 
Cooke, Myx., p. 19. C. (Erstedtii Rost., Mon., p. 120, fig. 99 ; 
Mass., Mon., p. 266. G. Friesii Rost., Mon., p. 122, fig. 105. 
G. confusum Mass., Mon,, p. 263. 
Plate XXVI., A. — a. sporangia pt various forms, x 20; l. capillitium 
and spores, x 280 ; c. spore, x 600 (England). 
Observations of the development of sporangia from extensive Plas- 
modia in leaf -heaps and in cultivations show that the varieties in 
shape and colour described by Rostafinski under the names of C. vul- 
gare, C. X)yr\form,e, C. minutum, and C. Friesii may arise from one 
source, and no specific characters appear to exist to separate the four 
forms. In examination of the type specimen of C. (Erstedtii in the 
Strassburg Herbarium no character was observed to distinguish it from 
C. pedunculatum ; the sporangia are pyriform, and yellow brown ; no 
lid remains attached to a sporangium, but it is described as white ; the 
capillitium resembles that met with in most forms of C. pedmicidatum ; 
a distinct pseudo-columella is present. The specimens from America 
are mostly of the type in the Strassburg collection named C. vulgare 
var. verum (or genuinum). They are of a dark olive colour, somewhat 
small in size, and without a pseudo-columella. The most ft-equent 
form in Europe appears to be the var. confusum in the Strassburg 
Herb. ; it is broader in shape, and yellow-brown. When exposed to 
