MYXOMYCETES. 11 



Genus 2. CIENKOWSKIA. 7?. 



Sporangium with single wall, splitting irregularly. Free ends 

 of the capillitiimi bent, sharp pointed. Rtflci. Mod., 91. 



The single species has not yet been recorded in Britain. 

 (Fig. 107.) 



Family 3. PHYSARACEJE. 



Deposits of lime only in granules ; w;dl of sporangia singh' ; 

 capillitium of thin-walled broad tubes, combined into a net, filled 

 more rarely with air, usually with lime; columella commonly not 

 developed, or in its place strongly developed central granules of 

 lime, very seldom formed by prolongation of the stem within the 

 sporangium ; sporangia simple, more rarely compound (zEihaliuni). 

 -Rtfki. Mon., p. 92.) 



Genus 3. PHYSARUM. Pers. 



Capillitium combined into an all-sided net, produced uniformly 

 in the midst, and grown to the walls of the sporangium ; the tubes 

 swollen at the knots (angles) filled with granules of lime ; colu- 

 mella only exceptionally developed ; sporangia sometimes splitting 

 with a longitudinal fissure ; walls of sporangium single or double. 

 Rtfki. MOIL, 93. 



1. Physarum didermoides. (Ach.} 



Sporangia persistently ovate, without columella, with double 

 walls ; inner thick, coloured, containing deposits of lime, outer 

 delicate, without colour ; prolonged at the base into a thin, thread- 

 like, white, sometimes branching stem, seated on a common, 

 strongly-developed hypothallus ; capillitium containing roundish 

 white granules of lime; spores dull violet, with a thick membrane, 

 very spinulose, '0125--0142 mm. diam. Rtfki. , Mon., p. 97. 



On dead leaves, grass, &c. (Figs. 74, 87.) 



Spumaria didernwides, Ach., in Pers. Syn., p. xxix. (1801). 



Diderma oblongnm, Schum. Saell., No. 1,423 (1803). Flor. Dan , 

 t. 1973, f. 1, Fr/S. M. iii., 103. 



Claustria didermoides, Fr. S. V. S., p. 451 (1849). 



Didymiuni congestuui, B. & Br. Ann. N. H. (1850), p. 3G5. 

 Cooke Hdbk., No. 1130. 



2. Physariim Schumacher!. (-Sjw.) 



Sporangia exactly globose, irregularly warted or squainulose, 

 stipitate ; stem subulate, erect, smooth or striate, entering the 

 sporangium in the form of a small conical columella ; capillitium 

 containing coloured deposits of lime in small angular masses ; 

 spores bright violet, with a smooth but stout membrane, *07-'08, 



