68 ENDOSPOR.E. [PHYSARELLA. 



described as being similar to F. septica, but with darker spores 

 (violet-black or almost black), 9-16 /x,, average 10 //, ; according 

 to Raciborski it is a form of the latter species (see Hedw. 1887, 

 p. 111). The character of the spores appears to place it rather 

 under F. ochracea. 



Genus 5. CIENKOWSKIA Rostafinski, Versuch, p. 9 (1873). 

 Sporangium -wall cartilaginous at the base; capillitiurn a loose 

 network of rigid threads with many free, curved, sharp-pointed 

 branchlets, connected with flat perforated calcareous plates 

 attached at their margins to the sporangium-wall. 



1. C. reticulata Host., Versuch, p. 9 (1873). Plasmodium? 

 Sporangia consisting of winding branched cylindrical plasmodio- 

 carps, sometimes forming a net, attached by a narrow basal keel 

 to the substratum ; 0'5 mm. diarn., yellow-brown with transverse 

 pale ridges, blotched with crimson ; sporangium- wall orange-yellow, 

 membranous above, cartilaginous below, marked with the bases of 

 the calcareous plates of the capillitium. Columella none. Capil- 

 litium consisting of flexuose, branching, rigid, yellow hyaline 

 threads, 'irregularly anastomosing, with numerous free sharp- 

 pointed uncinate branchlets, and of lime-deposits in the form of 

 flat, perforated, pale yellow plates disposed transversely to the axis 

 of the sporangium and connected by broad or narrow attach- 

 ments to the sporangium-wall ; occasionally with irregular lime- 

 knots intermixed. Spores clear violet-brown, minutely spinulose, 

 9 to 11 //, diam. Host., Mon., p. 91 ; Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 11, 

 fig. 107 ; Mass., Mon., p. 337. Physarum reticulaturti Alb. & 

 Schw., Consp. Fung., p. 90 (1805). 



Plate XXV., A. a. plasmodiocarp, x 2 ; b. portion of plasmodiocarp, in 

 part broken, and showing the parallel plates of lime among the spores, x 20 ; 

 c. capillitium and spores, x 280 ; d. spore, x 600 (Sibbertoft, England). 



Hal). On dead wood. Sibbertoft, Leicestershire (L:B.M.43) ; 

 France (Edin. Herb.) ; Germany (Strassb. Herb.) ; Java (K. 1772). 



Genus 6. PHYSARELLA Peck, in Bull. Torr. Bot. 01., ix., 

 p. 61 (1882). Sporangia stipitate, shortly cylindrical, perforated 

 by a deep umbilicus. Capillitium of delicate parallel threads 

 with minute fusiform lime-knots and stout spine-like processes 

 projecting perpendicularly from the sporangium-wall, 



1. P. mirabilis Peck, I.e. Plasmodium rich yellow. Total 

 height 3 mm. Sporangia shortly cylindrical, inclined, 0'8 nam. 

 long, - 6 mm. broad, gregarious, stipitate, perforated by a deep 

 umbilicus, which is continuous with the hollow stem, greenish or 

 reddish-yellow. Sporangium-wall thickened with innate deposits 

 of yellow lime-granules and studded with the bases of the spine- 

 like processes of the capillitium, at length dehiscing round the 

 margin of the cylinder, and recurving in stellate lobes from the 

 wall of the umbilicus, which persists to form a hollow pseudo- 

 columella. Stalk cylindrical, slender, broader at the base, striate, 



