72 
ENDOSPOREiE. 
[CRATERIUM. 
The specimen fi'om Paraguay named Didymium paraguayense Speg. 
(B.M. 1002) has rather larger sporangia, and these with the capilHtium 
and spores are of a brighter colour than the type from Louisiana, but 
in other respects they are identical. This species is closely allied to 
Physarum Neiotoni Macbr. 
Hab. On leaves. — Louisiana U.S.A. (L:B.M. 47) ; Paraguay (B. M. 
1002.) 
4. C. leucocephalum Ditm., in Sturm, Deutsch. FL, Pilze, p. 21, 
t. 11 (1813). Plasmodium rich yellow, among dead leaves. Total 
height- 1 mm. Sporangia ovoid or turbinate, stipitate, erect, 
0-7 mm. high, 0-5 mm. broad, red-brown with white incrustations 
of lime and scattered yellow warts on the upper half. Lid white, 
convex, continuous with the wall of the cup. Sporangium-wall 
thin, consisting of two closely connected layers, the outer yellow, 
the upper part provided with scattered lime-deposits and beset with 
shallow, often colourless pits, containing dense aggregations of 
white lime-granules, usually in company with yellow crystalline 
disc-shaped bodies ; the lower part cartilaginous, translucent, of 
deeper colour, and continued into the translucent stalk ; the inner 
layer membranous and colourless. Stalk equal, plicate, 0"3 to 
0-5 mm. long, red-brown, cartilaginous, rising from a circular 
hypothallus. Columella represented by a central mass of confluent 
lime-knots. Capillitium of large, irregularly shaped, white or 
yellowish Hme-knots, connected by yellow, branching, hyaline 
threads, with frequent flattened expansions at the axils. Spores 
violet-brown, spinulose, 7 to 9 ^u, diam. — Rost., Mon., p. 123; 
Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 19 ; Mass., Mon., p. 267 ; Blytt, Bidr. Norg., 
Sop. iii., p. 5; Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 154. 
Stemonitis leucocephala Pers., in Gmel., Syst, Nat., p. 1467 (1791). 
Physarum scyphoides Cooke & Balf., in Rav., Fungi Amer., 480 ; 
Mass., Journ. Myc, v., p. 186, PL xiv., fig. 7; Mass., Mon., 
p. 282. Craierium pruinosum Corda, Ic, v., p. 13, t. ii., f. 33. 
C. minimum Berk. & Curt., in Grev., ii., p. 67 ; Mass., Mon., 
p. 272. C. Fuckelii Mass., Mon., p. 272. G. cylindricum Mass., 
Mon., p. 268. 
Plate XXVII., B. — a. to e. sporangia of various forms, x 20;/. capil- 
litium, with pseudo-columella, x 35 ; g. sporangium-wall, showing crystal- 
line bodies, and spores, x 280 ; h. spore, x 600 (England) ; i. cylindrical 
sporangium, x 20 (United States) ; h. sporangium, from type of Physarum 
sciifhoUles, Cooke & Ralf., x 20 ; vertical view of half-empty sporangium 
from the same gathering, showing pseudo-columella, x 20 (Georgia, U.S.A.). 
The yellow crystalline bodies are a marked feature in this species. 
They are frequently absent from the sporangium-wall, but can be 
detected in the large lime-knots and in the columella by treating with 
hydrochloric acid, when they remain after the lime-granules are 
dissolved. In the delicate cylindrical sporangia, in which the double 
layer of the wall can scarcely be distinguished, they are to be found 
only in the columella, and are "sometimes entirely wanting. Those in the 
wall are either nearly superficial and can easily be detached, or are 
embedded in its substance ; they are usually disc-shaped, measuring 
16 to 40 /X diam., with a crenate margin, and marked with lines radiating 
