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Grateriwii pyriforme, Rost., Mon,, p. 120; Cke., Brit. Myx.,
p. 19; Sacc., Syll., n. 1234.
Craterium minutum, Rost., Mon., p. 120, f. 95; Cke., Myx.
Brit., p. 19. f. 95; Raunk., Myx. Dan., p. 79.
Craterium pcd-unculaium, Sacc., Syll., 1233; Raunk., Myx.
Dan., p. 79.
Exsicc.—Cke., Fung. Brit., Ed. II., 208 (as C. minutum);
Fckl., Fung. Rhen., 1453; Roum., Fung. Gall., 2957; Syd.,
Myc. March., 489; Desm., Cr. Fr., Ser. I., 369; Fold., Fung.
Rhen., 1454 (as Craterium pyriforme).
On leaves, twigs, bark, moss,,&o. Britain (Kew, Weybridge,
Penzance, Apethorpe, Bungay, Lyme Regis, Shere, Scarboro’,
Carlisle, Abergavenny, Appin, Glamis, N. B.); Germany;
Hungary; France; Italy; Finland; Belgium; Bavaria; Sweden;
United, States; Cuba; Brazil; N. Zealand; Australia; Natal;
Tasmania.
After a careful examination of numerous specimens from
Europe and other parts of the world, I find that tbe only course
left is to combine the three species and five varieties acknowledged
by Saccardo, into one species characterized by tbe sharply-
differentiated operculum, which is usually chalk-white, and
flat or slightly convex, and the dull-coloured sporangium. In
the above idea I am confirmed, or rather anticipated, by Mr.
A. Lister, who, during a critical examination of the Myxogastres
in the Kew Herbarium, has attached the following note to
the specimen-sheet of C. vulgare. “ I have added to tbe collection
some specimens of Craterium vulgare, representing a
few varieties in form and colour from a heap of dead leaves
in my grounds at Lyme Regis. The white form is abundant
in such localities, and given in several of the Kew specimens,
is the result of age and exposure, on originally more deeply
coloured, but pale sporangia. I have cultivated a large
number of sporangia from orange-yellow plasmodium, and
gathered many thousands of the ripe fruits during the last
three years from this particular heap. Among them I find
all the characters given in the description of Rostafinski’s three
species, G. vulgare, C. pyriforme, and C. minutum, witb (as it
appears to me) all shades of intermediate form. From careful
observation of sporangia developed from plasmodium, both in
the open air and under bell-jars, I believe that while varying
in form and colour, they belong specifically to one species. The
plasmodium appears to be always ultimately, of a more or less
orange-yellow, though in some stages it is often dirty brown
from the quantity of foreign matter held in suspension.
The differences in form and colour of tbe sporangium are the
only characters by which these three species (?) are separated,
and these characters vary so much in sporangia rising simultaneously,
and apparently from the same plasmodium, that, I
venture to submit, they cannot be considered as specific.
“ In all varieties the wall of the cup consists of two or three
layers, the outer smooth, witb granules of lime equally distributed
throughout its more or less coloured substance, the
inner white, and heavily charged witb lime, though the lime
differs in amount even in sporangia of the same cluster. The
lid is deciduous, and usually paler than the cup, and in most
instances distinctly marked off from tbe rim. In abnormal
forms, caused by rapid drying, the lid is often sunk below the rim.
“ The capillitium is white, consisting of large knots of lime
connected by scanty hyaline threads; these threads are sometimes
yellow, when tbe colour extends over the inner wall.
A central aggregation of lime knots or columella is sometimes
present. Spores smooth, 5—9 g, bright violet or violet-brown.”
Tbe appearance of tbe epispore depends on the amount of
magnification. I find in Mr. Lister’s own specimens th at under
a power magnifying 1200 diameters the epispore is distinctly
warted.
(Rostafinski’s Synonyms.)
(Under G. vulgare.)
Fungoid,es infundiUliforme, pendulum, pedículo donatum,
Mich., Nov. PI. Geu., p. 205, n. 10, t. 86, f, 13 (1729).
Craterium pedunculatum, Trent., I.e., p. 244 (1797).
Craterium vulgare, Ditm., I.e., t. 9; Nees, Syst., f. 120;
Chev., Fi. Par., t. 4, f. 26 (1817).
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