1. Net poorly developed 12. _C. violacea_

2. Net well developed.

i. Meshes regular and the nodes
distinct 14. _C. elegans_

ii. Meshes and nodules irregular 13. _C. purpurea_

_b._ Purple tints confined chiefly to plasmodic
granules on the calyculus and stipe.

Net with nodes well expanded.

i. Stipe short, not more than double the
sporangium; net and calyculus both
well developed 9. _C. piriformis_

ii. Stipe many times the sporangium,
weak 15. _C. languescens_

iii. Stipe slender, sporangium
copper-colored 16. _C. cuprea_

1. CRIBRARIA ARGILLACEA _Pers._

PLATE XII., Figs. 12, 13; PLATE XVII., Fig. 1.

1791. _Stemonitis argillacea_ (Pers.) Gmel., _Syst. Nat._, II., 1469.
1796. _Cribraria argillacea_ Pers., _Obs. Myc._, I., p. 90.

Sporangia dull ochraceous-olivaceous, globose, nearly 1 mm. in diameter,
sessile or short stipitate, closely gregarious or crowded, the peridial
walls at maturity smooth, shining, except above, long persistent,
obscurely reticulate, with irregular thickenings which at the apex at
length present the appearance of an irregular, coarsely meshed net
without nodal thickenings; stipe very short, stout, erect, reddish
brown, spore-mass ochraceous, spores by transmitted light pale,
spinulose, 5-6 mu.

This species stands just on the border-line between the tubiferas and
the genus now before us. While on the one hand it possesses many
characters such as the habit, form of sporangium, which are distinctly
tubuline, on the other it shows in the upper peridial wall definite
reticulations which suggest _Cribraria_. In freshly formed sporangia the
reticulations are barely visible in the crown; later on they are more
manifest, until, as spore-dispersal proceeds; the cribraria characters
come out with sufficient distinctness, and in empty sporangia the
reticulations may be seen to affect the entire peridial wall. The nodes
are not expanded. The spores are pale by transmitted light, spinulose,
about 6 mu. Plasmodium lead-colored. Found sometimes in large patches on
rotten logs of various species. Not uncommon. Cf. _Lindbladia effusa_.

New England, New Y