OLIVE. — PRELIMINARY ENUMERATION OP THE SOROPHORE^. 341 



usual form with elongated, sharp pseudopodia, are in general irregularly 

 lobed and nodulated, even when growing under normal conditions. Such 

 irregular shapes are similar to those assumed by the myxamcebae of other 

 species when they are growing under such abnormal conditions as are 

 furnished by an insufficient water supply. 



POLYSPHONDYLIUM Brefeld (1884). 



Sori spherical, borne terminally on primary and secondary stalks, the 

 latter branching in whorls from the main axis ; the fructification occa- 

 sionally simple as in Dictyostelium. Whorls varying in number from 

 1-10, and the number of branches in each whorl from 1-6. 



Polysphondylium violaceum Brefeld. 



Schimruelpilze, VI. p. 1-34. PI. I, 11. 1884. 



Sori and stalks purplish or dark violet, varying in height from about 

 i^cm.-2cm. ; sori about 50/x-300^ in diameter. Spores elongated oval, 



On dung of horse, bird, sheep, toad, muskrat. Italy, Maine, New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, Florida. 



The limits of spore measurements as given by Brefeld have been in- 

 creased here as in other instances. The form growing on bird dung, 

 brought by Prof. F. 0. Grover from Center Ossipee, N. H., and the 

 Massachusetts form on the dung of muskrat, seem to correspond very 

 closely to the type description. The spores of the Maine and Florida 

 forms are somewhat smaller, while the general aspect of the fructifica- 

 tions is different in that they are more delicate and less luxuriant and 

 the sori have a less diameter than those of the type. These differences, 

 however, seem hardly more than varietal. 



Polysphondylium pallidum nov. sp. 



Sori and stalks white, the sori about 50fx-80/x in diameter. Spores 

 oval, 2.5/X-3/X X Ofi-G.Ofx, or occasionally spherical, about 7/x-8fj. in 

 diameter. 



On dung of ass, rabbit, muskrat. Liberia, Africa ; Arlington and 

 Stony Brook, Mass. 



This delicate species is well characterized by the small size of its sori. 

 In an interesting specimen, found by Mr. A. F. Blakeslee on muskrat 

 dung, luxuriant fructifications showed that some of the branches them- 

 selves bore several whorls of branchlets. That this doubly verticillate 



