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68 A Monograph o f the Myxogastres.
March., 164; Rah., Fung. Eur., 2519; Jack, Leiner. &c., 422;
Rav., Fung. Car., 78; Rav., Eung. Amer., 476; Ellis, N. Amer.
Fung., 1122.
On decaying wood, especially pine. Britain (Milton, No rth s;
Kew, Suffolk, Scarboro’, Carlisle, Appin, N. B .); Germany;
Sweden; Finland; Belgium; Denmark; Hungary; United
States; S. America; Ceylon.
Gregarious, 1—1'5 mm. high; the stem varies from 2—3
times as long as the sporangium; the lower three-fourths is
erect, blackish-brown, and opaque; at the top of this erect
portion there is a sharp curve, above which the pendulous
portion of the stem consists, at maturity, of a colourless,
shrivelled membrane, from which the sporangium hangs suspended,
and easily moved by wind or insects ; in all probability
this peculiar structure of the stem is connected with spore-
dissemination. The inner surface of the calyculus and the
ribs are furnished with numerous dark brown granular masses
of organic matter.
(Rostafinski’s Synonyms.)
hlueoT cancellahis, Batsch, f. 232 (1789).
Stemonitis eancellata, Gmel., Syst., 1468 (1791).
Sphaerocarpiis trichioides, Bull., p. 124 (1791).
Gribraria cermia, Pers., Obs., i. 91 (1796).
Dictydium umbilicatum, Schrad., t. iv., f. 1 (1797); Fr., S. M.,
iii. 165; Berk., Eng. FL, v. p. 318; Cooke, Hdbk., 1165^
fig. 134.
Dictydium cmbignum, Schrad., t. iv., f. 2 (1797).
Trichia ecrnua, Poir., Ency., viii., no. 25 (1808).
Dictydium cernuum, Nees., f. 117 (1816).
Dictydmm trichioides, Chev., FL Par., 327 (1827); Corda lo.,
V., f . 36.
Dictydium venosum, Schrad.
Sporangium globose, cernuous, brownish-yellow owing to
the spore-mass showing through the translucent wall, which is
Bietydium. 69
almost colourless when empty and furnished with 9—12 darker
coloured ribs giving off lateral, free, not anastomosing branches;
stem elongated, flexuous, brownish.
Dictydium venosum, Schrader, Nov. Gen., p. 14, pi. iii., fig. 6;
Saco., SjdL, V. 7, pt. I., no. 1412 ?
On rotten prostrate trunks of pine. Germany.
I t is doubtful whether the species described by Berlese in
Saco., Syll., 1. c., is the species intended by Schrader.
COLUMELLIFERAE.
The most pronounced features of the present section are the
presence of a central columella, which in most instances is a
direct continuation of the stem within the peridium, and the
absence of lime from every part. The two sub-sections as
defined appear distinct, but this, as usual, is only true of the
two poles, and curiously enough, transitions have been met
with where they would have been least expected. In the
Lamprodermcae, characterized by the capillitium springing from
the apex of the columella, we find this character fairly satisfactory
in the typical genus Lamproderma, and yet more rigidly
carried out in Encrthencma, where the copious capillitium
originates entirely from a peltate disc springing from the apex
of the columella after the latter has passed quite through the
sporangium; yet we find in the genus Ancyrophorus all the
characteristics presented by the genus Encrthencma, plus a few
scattered branches springing from various points of the columella
throughout its length, in addition to the main bulk of the
capillitium which originates from the apical disc as iu Ener-
thenema. The branches of the capillitium springing from the
columella are again broken up into smaller and smaller branoh-
lets, which usually combine to form an irregular network. The
sporangial wall is always very thin and blackish in colour and
remarkable for its brilliant metallic tints, and also for its
ephemeral nature, disappearing entirely or in part as the spores
approach maturity, or as in the genus Orthotrichia being absent