CRATERIUM.] 
PHYSARACEjE. 
71 
weather the sporangia often lose their colour and become white. 
Dicier ma brunneolum Phill., from California, Harkness, is allied to this 
species in the smooth yellow-brown cartilaginous outer sporangium- 
wall enclosing a densely calcareous inner layer, and in the character of 
the capillitium. It differs in the sporangia being globose and sessile, 
in the outer wall being continuous throughout, without a lid of 
different substance, and in the greater roughness of the spores. It 
appears to be a single gathering, and if a constant form may constitute 
a distinct species. 
Hab. On dead leaves, sticks, etc. — Lyme Regis, Dorset (L:B.M.45) ; 
Batheaston, Somerset (B. M. 179 to 183) ; Raincliffe Wood, Yorkshire 
(B. M. 1057) ; France (B. M. 469) ; Germany (B. M. 473) ; Italy 
(K. 257) ; Sweden (K. 1359); Hungary (K. 1362); Ceylon (B. M. 472); 
New Zealand (K. 254) ; Pennsylvania (L:B.M.45) ; Iowa (L:B.M.45). 
2. C. concinnum Rex, in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. 1893, 
p. 370. Plasmodium ? Total height 0-5 to 0-7 mm. Sporangia 
broadly funnel-shaped or goblet-shaped, stipitate, 0'2 to 0-5 mm. 
diam., smooth, olive-brown, often paler above, dehiscing by a 
well-defined convex white lid; sporangium-wall cartilaginous. 
Stalk brown, O'l to 0*2 mm. long, plicate. Columella none. 
Capillitium of numerous small angular lime-knots, connected by 
short and sparingly branched hyaline threads. Spores purplish- 
brown, minutely warted, 8 to 9 /u, diam. 
Plate XXVI., B. — a. sporangia, x 20 ; b. capillitium and spores, with 
fragment of sporangium- wall, x 280 ; d. spore, x 600 (United States). 
This species is nearly allied to the American form of C. vulgare, but 
differs in the smaller size, the brown lime-knots, and the browner 
spores ; it appears to have been fouud almost exclusively on the burs 
of chestnut in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. 
Hab. Philadelphia (L:B.M.46). 
3. C. rubescens Rex, in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. 1893, 
p. 370. Plasmodium 1 Sporangium goblet-shaped, stipitate, 
erect, gregarious, 0'7 to 0"8 mm. high, 0'6 mm, broad, rugose, 
bright violet, irregularly reticulate with pale violet. Lid 
convex. Sporangium wall cai^tilaginous, composed of two or 
three closely connected layers with deposits of pale violet 
lime-granules, distributed throughout, but chiefly concentrated 
in pouch-like cavities of the wall, causing the effect of pale 
reticulations in the opaque object. Columella represented by a 
central mass of confluent lime-knots. Stalk cylindrical, 0*4 mm. 
high, 0'07 mm. thick, plicate, purple, opaque, arising from a disc- 
shaped hypothallus. Capillitium of large violet lime-knots, 
connected by branching pale violet hyaline threads. Spores 
violet, nearly smooth, 8 to 9 /x diam. — Didymium j^f^'^'ciguai/ense 
Speg., in Anal. Soc. Cient. Argent., xxii., p. 186, No. 320 (1886). 
Mass., Mon., p. 250. jD. guarajnense (errore) Speg., I.e., xxvi., 
p. 60, No. 154. Physarum pulcherrimum Mass., Mon., p. 293 
(in part). 
Plate XXVII., k.—a. sporangia, x 20 ; h. capillitium and spores, x 280 ; 
0. spore, X 600 (Paraguay). 
