404 
HANDBOOK OF 
Sub-Section 2. Fhysarise. 
Capillitium containing lime. 
Genus 15 . CRATEMUM. Trent. 
Sporangia regular, determinate, splitting with a lid, walls papy- 
raceous, stiff’, invariably stipitate. Lower part of the sporangium, 
after the spores are expelled, permanent, cyathiform ; wails of 
sporangia double or treble, the outer passing down into the tubular 
stem, inner usually surrounding the mass of spores on all sides, 
and the base of the tubes of the capillitium, stout, inevitably con- 
taining numerous granules of lime, rigid, persistent after the dis- 
persal of the spores ; columella almost always evident, formed in 
the centre by the free, strongly-developed knots of the capillitium. 
2068 . Craterium confusum. Mass. Mon. 2C3.=Craterium 
vulgare. Rost. Mon. p. 118. Craterium pyriforme. Rost. 
Mon. p. 120. Sacc. Syll. 1234. Craterium minutum. 
Rost. Mon. p. 120. Craterium pednnculatum. Sacc. Syll. 
1233. 
Sporangia variable in form, cyathiform, infundibuliform, or 
pyriform, stipitate or rarely subsessile, varying in colour from 
bright brown through ochraceous to nearly white, lid sharply 
differentiated from wall of sporangium, flat or slightly convex, 
usually chalk white, rarely ochraceous, deciduous; stem variable 
in length and depth of colour : capillitium abundant, knots of 
lime large, irregular, white or yellowish, usually by aggregation 
forming a more or less distinct columella ; spores globose, dirty 
violet, very minutely verruculose, 8-11 g diam. 
On leaves, etc. W. Australia. Tasmania. New Zealand.. 
(Fig. 358.) 
Genus 1C. PHYSAEUM. Pen. 
Sporangia solitary, plasmodiocarp or combined to form an 
sethalium, wall single or of two distinct layers ; threads of capil- 
litium springing from all parts of the sporangial wall, combined 
to form an irregular network, with the numerous nodes or angles 
very much and irregularly swollen and filled with granules of 
lime, the internodcs tin'll and without lime, dehiscence irregular, 
or by a longitudinal fissure in the plasmodiocarp form. 
# Sporangia stipitate. 
2069 . Physarum rufibasis. B. Be. Ceylon p. 85. Mass. 
Mon. 279.=Tilmadoche rufipes, Berk, in Queensland list. 
Scattered or gregarious, stipitate; sporangia globose, dull yellow 
or tawmy, even, sprinkled with minute particles of lime, dehiscing 
irregularly ; stem elongated, slender, tapering upwards, longi- 
tudinally furrowed, expanding at the base into a small circular 
hypothallus, bright brown, filled with minute granules of lime ; 
columella absent; capillitium dense, forming an irregular network. 
