MYCETOZOA OF OEYLON, 347 



the ground : the stalks arose directly from the surface of the 

 pot without any white hypothallus, and gave the impression 

 that the plasmodium had issued through it. 



Diachsea subsessilis, Peck. 



This species has been found on one occasion in the jungle at 

 Pattipola (6,200 feet) on dead leaves and on the green stems of 

 Strohilanthes. The specimens were immature when collected, 

 and had then a wliite stalk and a bright yeUow head. Spo- 

 rangia, when ripe, dull purple or iridescent, "8 mm. diameter ; 

 stalk stout, yeUo wish-white, • 5 mm. high, • 2 mm. diameter ; 

 columella white, short or scarcely evident ; lime in stalk and 

 columella fused into crystalline nodules ; capilUtium dark 

 purple, colourless at the base ; spores pale purple, 10 /* diameter, 

 marked with minute warts arranged in rows to form an 

 irregular reticulation, usually with three or four patches of 

 more definite reticulation on each spore. In some places there 

 is a thin hyaline or iridescent hypothallus, bearing large lime 

 granules round the base of the stalk. 



Diaehsea bulbillosa, Lister. 



Didymium hulhillosum, B. & Br., Fungi of Ceylon, No. 753. 



Berkeley and Broome's specimens were immature, as is 

 indicated by their description, " sporis conglomeratis." It was 

 collected again in 1905 at Peradeniya on dead leaves. The 

 developing sporangia were orange-yeUow, on a brown homy- 

 looking stalk, and resembled a developing Trichia. Diachcea. 

 subsessilis when immature looks like a Physarum. Total 

 height '9 to 1 2 mm. ; sporangia globose, 5 mm. diameter, 

 iridescent, sometimes bronze, red-brown at the base ; stalks 

 conical, red-brown, whitish at the base, 0*1 mm. diameter in 

 the middle, 0*25 mm. diameter at the base, often united by 

 a white netted hypothallus; columella white, globose, about 

 half the height of the sporangium ; capiUitium dark purple ; 

 spores 9 to 10 /* diameter, rather dark purple, spinulose, with 

 large, blunt, scattered spines, with occasionally a single mesh 

 of a network ; lime in stalk and columella in angular granules. 

 Half of this was removed to the laboratory, the remainder 

 being left to develop in situ. In the sporangia which developed 

 in the laboratory the spores appear greenish. 



