1240 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters . 
Crateriim leucocephalum (Pers.) Ditmar. 
1791. Stemouitis leucocephala Persoon, Gmelin > Syst. Nat., II., 
p. 1467. 
1813. Craterium leucocephalum (Pers.) Ditmar, Sturm, Deu- 
tsch. Flora, Pilzc, p. 21, pi. 11. 
Macbricfe: ‘ ‘Sporangia gregarious, short cylindric or ovate, 
pure white above, brown or reddish brown below, stipitate, de¬ 
hiscence irregularly cireumscissile, the persistent portion of the 
peridium beaker-shaped» stipe short, stout, expanded above into 
the base of the peridium with which it is concolorous; hypothal- 
lus scant; capillitium white or sometimes, toward the center, 
brownish, the calcareous nodules large, conspicuous, and persis¬ 
tent ; spore-mass black, spores violaceous brown, minutely spinu- 
lose, 8-9 ft..” He says it is distinguished by its white cap, and 
that in some gatherings curious patches of yellow mark the other¬ 
wise snow-white cap and sides. 
Lister finds the plasmodium rich yellow; the sporangia ovoid 
or turbinate, stalked, red-brown with white incrustations of lime 
and usually spotted with miunte yellow warts on the upper half; 
plasmodiocarp forms sometimes occurring; the columella either 
absent or represented by a central mass of confluent lime-knots, 
spores violet-brown, spinulose, 7-9/a in diameter. 
Massee differs but little from the above quoted descriptions 
in essentials. He calls the spores minutely warted, the warts 
often with a tendency to form anastomosing lines, 8-11 fi in di¬ 
ameter. 
I find Macbride’s description good for this species. It is a 
pretty form and easily determined. The little vase-shaped 
sporangia, light above, dark at the base, have a sunken “lid M 
which breaks away leaving the calcareous nodules showing in the 
top of the vase, like tiny eggs in a nest. They can be seen with 
the unaided eye. I have gatherings which have the curious 
patches of yellow of which Macbride speaks. They are on liv¬ 
ing and dead leaves, and on dead wood. 
We have specimens from the campus woods, October 1903, and 
on three different days of July 1904; from cemetery woods, 
October 1903, from Yilas woods, July 1904, Devil’s Lake, June 
1905, from Blue Mounds, July 1904 and July 1905, from campus 
