152 REV. M. J. BERKELEY ON TWO NEW GENERA OF FUNGI. 



the species, except by French botanists, and these appear to be for the most part mere com- 

 pilations from Bulliard. DeCandolle's account, for instance, in the second volume of the 

 ' More Fran9aise,' is only a transcript, as is also that of Chevallier ; who adds to what 

 DeCandolle says the circumstance mentioned by Bulliard, that when the fructifying mass 

 is placed in water, the spores separate from one another as if they proceeded from a cap- 

 sule, a circumstance which I have observed in one of the species, though not in the two 

 which most nearly resemble the plant of Bulliard. 



Duby next gives the characters of a supposed Physarum, under the name*of P.? capsu- 

 liferum, but as he describes the flocci as black, his plant cannot be the species of Bulliard ; 

 and his remark that Desmazieres, who published Didymmm cinereum at No. 272 of his 

 • Plantes Cryptogames du Nord de France,' thinks it may possibly be the same with that 

 species, is conclusive as to the point, even though Bulliard has referred to Batsch's figure 

 as a synonym of his Sphcerocarpus capsulifer. 



These are all the notices I can find of this species. It is not in the General Index to 

 Fries' ' Systema Mycologicum,' nor do I observe any notice of it in the text of his work, 

 where so singular a production might have been expected to claim observation. Fries, 

 indeed, in his general remarks, says that conglobated spores are described in several 

 Myxogastres, but that such states are, according to his observations, always abnormal ; 

 which may be the reason why he has not noticed the species of Bulliard. 



That the spores are, however, essentially conglobated in the species under consideration, 

 and do not form mere accidental clusters, arising from inequable distribution of moisture 

 amongst the mass, or from any other mechanical cause, is most evident under the micro- 

 scope, the external spores being indeed always attached to a larger body in the centre, so 

 that, when they are quite disunited, the size is seen to vary considerably ; and in one spe- 

 cies, where they are evidently echinulate, the little points are confined to those portions 

 which were exposed after the fashion of the achsenia in Mhagadiolus edulis ; besides which, 

 in an early stage of growth they are contained in a common sac. There is no doubt that 

 several other Physara will be found to possess the same structure, and possibly all those 

 species which have laminae rather than flocci ; and now that attention has been called to 

 the subject, other instances may be found in other genera affording solid grounds for 

 future division. The species which are now generically combined, with one exception of 

 aDidymioid aspect, not only agree in structure, but in habit ; the main distinction, indeed, 

 besides differences of brightness of colour, consisting in minute variations in the spores. 

 To Dr. Badham the credit of calling attention to Bulliard' s figure, and ascertaining the 

 structure, is entirely due, and I have therefore dedicated the genus to him, in the hope 

 that its characters are so well founded as to ensure permanence, a very main point in such 

 compliments. 



Externally the fungi in question, with one exception, have the appearance of species 

 of the genus Physarum, the peridium being single and smooth, and the spores mixed with 

 flocci. These latter are broad and lamelliform in parts, but vary greatly in breadth, and 

 intermixed with spores, as in other Myxogastres ; but these spores grow in little acini- 

 form masses, instead of being single, as in other allied fungi, with the exception of Ener- 

 thenema, Reticularia and Ptychogaster ; in the former of which, figured by Mr. Bowman 





