erfect rib-like, loosely joined branches developed from the short
columella or stem-top, sustaining the spores.

A single species:--

1. ECHINOSTELIUM MINUTUM _DeBy_.

1873. _Echinostelium minutum_ DeBy., Rost., _Versuch_, p. 7.

PLATE XIX., Figs. 11 and 11 _a_

Sporangia distinct, scattered, globose, very minute, 40-50 mu, stipitate;
the stipe, hair-like subulate, granular but hyaline; columella minute or
none; capillitium consisting of a few arcuate spinose threads loosely
united supporting the uncovered spores, spores globose, colorless,
smooth, 7-8 mu.--_Rostafinski._

This very singular and diminutive form, the least of all slime-moulds,
is probably widely distributed but the accident of discovery is rare.
DeBary found it once only, at Frankfurt am Main.

Miss Lister reports its occurrence in England and Austria. In the United
States it has been seen but once on certain laboratory material from
Massachusetts, studied by Dr. Thaxter.

Our drawing is after Rostafinski, IV., 68; Miss Lister follows No. 54,
and so finds a bit of peridium below the two spores shown in the figure,
one on each side of a microscopic _columella_.

This is almost the only taxonomic suggestion;--a mere suggestion; this
microscopic bit of anxious life is but a shadow,--a shade, a shadow of a
lamproderma!

ORDER III

CRIBRARIALES

Fructification plasmodiocarpous or aethalioid, or consisting of distinct
sporangia; peridia membranaceous at maturity, more or less evanescent,
opening irregularly or by means of a delicate network, which involves at
least the upper part of the sporangium; capillitium usually none; spores
of some shade of brown, umbrine, rarely purplish.

This order is distinguished--except in a single case--by the entire
absence of true capillitium, the pallid or brown spores, the gradual
evolution of distinct sporangia in which provision for spore-dispersal
is made by peridial modification especially at the sporangium-top.

=Key to the Families of the Cribrariales=

_A._ Fructification plasmodiocarpous scattered as
if made up of the segments of the
plasmodial net LICEACAE

_B._ Fructification of distinct and separate
sporangia, long stipitate, opening by a
delicate operculum at the top ORCADELLACEAE

_C._ Fructification aethalioid, the sporangia
generally more or less tubular, often