hreads warted or spinulose, non-elastic.

Species of this genus are easily distinguished from those of the next by
the peculiar fragile peridium and the inelastic capillitium.

=Key to the Species of Lachnobolus=

_A._ Sporangia pale yellow, on fallen flowers and
fruit-burs of Castanea 1. _L. globosus_

_B._ Sporangia rosy or copper-colored, at length
ochraceous 2. _L. occidentalis_

1. LACHNOBOLUS GLOBOSUS (_Schw._) _Rost._

1822. _Arcyria globosa_ Schw., _Syn. Fung. Carol._, No. 400.
1875. Lachnobolus globosus (Schw.) _Rost., Mon._, p. 283.
1894. _Arcyria albida_ Pers. (in part) Lister, _Mycetozoa_, p. 186.

Sporangia on the spines of fallen chestnut burs, scattered, pale yellow
or whitish, small, globose, the peridium early evanescent above, more
persistent below, stipitate; stipe small, tapering upward, from a small
hypothallus; capillitium a dense but not expanding network attached
chiefly to the lower portion of the sporangial wall, minutely waited or
roughened, with few expansions or inflations; spores in mass pale
yellow, under the lens colorless, almost smooth, 7-8 mu.

This singular little species is remarkable chiefly in the habitat it
affects,--fallen chestnut burs. On these almost universal, but on
nothing else, except on the fallen catkins of the same species. Regarded
by Mr. Lister as _A. cinerea_, from which it differs constantly in form,
in capillitium more open and with larger threads, 4-5 mu in diameter as
well as in its unique habitat, and yellowish color.

Distribution coterminous with that of _Castanea dentata_
Borkhausen,--eastern half of the United States.

2. LACHNOBOLUS OCCIDENTALIS _Macbr._

PLATE II., Figs. 2, 2 _a_, 2 _b_; 4 and 4 _a_.

1885. _Lachnobolus incarnatus_ (Alb. & Schw.) Macbr., _Bull. Lab.
Nat. Hist. Iowa_, II., p. 126.

Sporangia scattered or crowded upon a hypothallus more or less distinct,
globose or ellipsoidal, short-stipitate, varying somewhat in color, at
first rosy or flesh-colored, later brownish or ochraceous; the peridium
exceedingly thin, pellucid, mealy, evanescent above, persisting as a
shallow cup below; capillitium inelastic, rather closely netted of
threads variable in thickness, marked by frequent thickenings or
expansions, everywhere warted, attached to the peridial walls, spores in
mass flesh-colored, under the lens colorless, smooth, globose,