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green with sulphur-coloured patches of lime; stem slender, attenuated
upwards and curved, sulphur-coloured, or whitish, becoming
brownish towards the base; hypothallus spreading; spores
blackish-brown, globose.
Berk., in Herb., n. 10,785.
On palm. Java.
The above description, accompanied by sketches, is in Berkeley’s
Herbarium, but the specimen has disappeared, hence 1 am
unable to supplement the diagnosis.
Spumaria, Pers.
Aethalium consisting of numerous crowded, irregularly
branched sporangia, tbe whole at first surrounded by a common
friable cortex containing granules of lime; sporangia dendritic,
the thin walls containing granules of lime; columella central,
not containing lime, sending off branches into the lobes of
the sporangium; threads of tbe capillitium forming a dense
network, extending from tbe columella to the walls of the
sporangium.
Spumaria, Pers., Disp., t. 1, figs. a, b,e; Rost., Mon., p. 191 ;
Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 45; Sacc., Syll, p. 338; Zopf, 153.
The present genus, along with Diachaea, form a transition from
the Lithodermeae to tbe GolumeUiferae; showing affinity with
the former in the presence of granules of lime in the sporangial _
walls, and witb tbe latter in the central, elongated columella.
Distrib. Europe; United States; Canada; Australia; S.
Africa; Ceylon. Species 1. •
Spumaria alba, D. C.
Common cortex whitish, deciduous; sporangia numerous,
dendritic; columella empty, branched, shorter than the branches
of tbe sporangium, capillitium springing from the columella and
passing to the wall of the sporangium, branches 2—4 g thick,
forming a dense irregular net, widened at the angles, obscure
violet or brownish; spores globose, verruculose, obscure purple,
10—13 g diameter.
Spurimria alba, D, C., Flor. Fr., ii., 261; Rost., Mon., p. 191,
figs. 158, 172, 175; Cke., Myx. Brit., p. 45, figs. 158, 172, 175;
Schroeter, p. 120; Raunk., Myx. Dan., p. 89; Sacc., Syll., 1338.
Exsicc.—Rab., Fung. Eur., 1323; Lib., PI. Crypt. Ard., Faso.
11., 179; Karst., Fung. Fenn., 497; Fckl., Fung. Rhen., 1471;
Syd., Myo. March., 397; Desm., Cr. Fr., ser. 1., 768; Kunze,
Fung. Sel., 198.
On wood, bark, leaves, twigs, grass, &c. Britain (Kew,
Scarboro’, Carlisle, Capel Curig, Aboyne, N. B.); Germany;
France; Belgium; Italy; Hungary; Denmark; United States;
Canada; Australia; S. Africa; Ceylon.
The plasmodium often creeps up the stems of grasses for
a distance of several inches, forming aethalia varying from
■J—2 inches or more in length, at first covered with tbe thick,
white, common cortex, which soon falls away, leaving the
numerous, crowded, branched sporangia arranged in a dendritic
manner, and of a bluish-grey colour. Mass of spores blackish,
very copious and pulverulent.
(Rostafinski’s Synonyms.)
Mucilago, 2, Mich., t. 96, f. 2 (1729).
Mucorii, Gled. Meth., p. 160 (1753).
Mucilago crustaeea alba, Batt., t. 40, f. 9, H. 1. (1755).
Mucilago, Hall, n. 2129 (1768).
Byssus bombycina, Retz., V. Handl, 251 (1769).
Mucilago filamentosa, Bonamy., t. 3 (1772).
Beticularia alba. Bull., t. 326 (1791).
Spumaria mucilago, Pers., Disp., t. 1, f. a, b, c (1797).
Eeticularia ovata, Var., Witb. Arr., iv., 1978 (1803).
Spumaria emmuta, Schum., Saell., 1415 (1803); Fi. Dan.,
t. 1978, f. 1.
Spumaria alba, D. 0., F I Fr., ii., 261 (1805); Fr., Syst.
Myc., iii., 25; Eng. FL, v., 310; Cooke, Hdbk., n. 1103.
Spumaria alba, a. laminosa, ¡3. cornuta, Fr., S. M., iii., 95
(1829).
Didymium spumarioides, Fr., S. M., iii., 95 (1829).
Diderma spumariacfcrnnc, Wallr., FL Germ., 2208 (1833).