i ' -I:
last-named genus. Sometimes two or three sporangia are
seated on a common stem, forming a plasmodiocarp.
Physarum scyphoides, Cke. and Balf. (fig. 231).
Sporangia globose or broadly obovate, stipitate, upper portion
of wall whitish, rough with amorphous lumps of lime, based
portion bright brmon, persistent as a very shallow, irregular cup;
stem almost equal to sporangium in length, bright brotm, erect,
usually attenuated upwards, irregularly wrinkled and often
compressed and twisted, expanding at the base into a minute,
brown hypothallus; capillitium dense, knots of lime white or
yellowish, very numerous, large, irregidarly bi'amehed, connected
by short, tbin, colourless portions, becoming concentrated
towards tbe base to form a columella; spore globose, pale lilac-
brown, minutely warted, 7—9 g diameter.
Physarum scyphoides, Cke. and Balf., in Rav., Fung. Amer.,
Exs., 480 (without description); Mass., Journ. MycoL, vol. v.,
p. 186, t. 14, f. 7 (1889).
On living leaves, grass, &o. Darien, Georgia; (Rav,, 2407).
(Type in Herb., Kew.)
A very fine species, about 1 mm. high, scattered or gregarious ;
the upper portion of the sporangium is whitish, with sometimes
a suggestion of pink, falling away in patches when mature, and
leaving tbe small, thicker, basal portion in the form of an
irregular shallow cup or disc, which, witb tbe character of tbe
capillitium, suggest a leaning towards tbe genus Craterium.
Physarum Readeri, Mass. (n. sp.).
Sporangium stipitate, spherico-depressed, plane or slightly
umbilicate below, greyish, covered with distinct hut closely arranged
white, inncde flcdces of lime; stem equal to or longer than the
sporangium, very thick, equcd, brown, longitudinally rugulose,
expanding into a broad, dark-brown hypothallus, filled with
masses of lime and organic matter; capillitium absent, but
when the sporangium is empty a brown spot is seen at the
base which corresponds to the apex of tlie stem; capillitium
dense, nodes few, large, angidarly stellcde, filled with colourless
granules of lime, internodes elongated, slender; spores dirty
lilac, globose, very minutely verruculose, 15—16 g diameter.
(Type in Herb., Kew.)
On wood. Melbourne.
Scattered; 2'5—3 mm. high; allied to Physarum leucophaeum,
but quite distinct in the larger spores, thicker, equal stem, and
in the large well-developed nodes of the capillitium.
Physarum polymorphum, Rost.
Gregarious, stipitate, rarely sessile, sporangia compressed, grey,
simple or more or less confluent, obovate, obcordate or lenti-
form, margin lobed or waved; stem filiform, subulate, or several
confluent and forming a membranaceous, sulcate cone, yellowish;
threads of capillitium forming an irregular netwoi'k, white, here
and there with angular dilatations; spores subglobose, violet-
brown, spinulose, 9—11 g diameter.
Physarum polymorphum, Rost., Mon., p. 107; Sacc., Syll.,
vii., 1, n. 1196.
On bark. Cuba; United States.
Sporangia variable in form, often confluent, dark grey, truncate
; stem subulate, strongly longitudinally wrinkled, yellowish-
pink, rarely simple, usually fasciculate, curved or procumbent;
capillitium strongly developed witb angnlarly-globose dilatations
containing lime (Sacc., Syll., I.e.). Unknown to me.
(Rostafinski’s Synonyms.)
Didymium polyeephalum, Mout., Ann. Sci. Nat., p. 361; Syll,
n. 1074 (1873).
Didymium luteo-griseum, B. and C., Grev., p. 65 (187.3).
Didymium polyeephalum, Rav., cfr. Grev., p. 53 (1873).
Physarum affine, Rost.
Sporangia spherico-depressed or subrenifonn, white; stem
snow-white, opaque, about equal in length to tbe sporangium ;