336 PETCH : 



liypothallus, in patches covering several square inches ; 

 sporangia covered with loose lime granules ; lime knots small, 

 rounded, with rigid hyaline connecting threads ; spores dark 

 purple- brown, spinulose, 11 to 13 M diameter. In another 

 gathering, with the typical sporangium wall and purple 

 areolated inner layer, there is no hypothallus, and most of the 

 sporangia liave a strongly developed pseudocolumella ; the 

 spores, however, show that tlie development has been 

 irregular, for, while some are 11 to 13 h diameter and strongly 

 warted, others are undivided spore masses up to 60 X 30 M, 

 or hour-glass-shaped double spores. Out of four occurrences, 

 it grew on dead dadap [Erythrina sp.) in three instances. 

 Peradeniya, Ukuwela. 



Physarum einereura, Pers. 



The specimens included in Fungi of Ceylon, No. 756, under 

 the name " Didymium cinereufn, P." (Thwaites' 55, 135), are 

 P. compressum, P. nicaraguense , and P. didermoides. There 

 is a supposed Ceylon specimen of P. cinereum in Kew 1284. 

 It has been taken recently on several occasions ; sporangia 

 white or grayish-white, with a smooth, single, membranous 

 wall charged with globular lime granules ; capillitium of 

 rounded white lime knots with abundant hyaline threads ; 

 spores light violet-brown, minutely warted, 8 to 9 F diameter, 



Peradeniya. 



Physarum crateriachea, Lister. 



Plasmodium white, creeping over dead leaves, ripening 

 there and on the stems of Uving plants, as in Diachma. Col- 

 lected twice ; sporangia ellipsoid, upright, typical. 



Peradeniya. 



Physarum crateriforme, Petch. Ann. Perad., IV., p. 304. 



Sporangia stalked, occasionally sessile : crateriform or 

 clavate, 0*5 to 0*75 mm. high, 0-3-0 '4 mm. diameter, or 

 spherical, 0*5 mm. diameter, sometimes flattened as in Didy- 

 mium clavus, white, with dense scattered Hme deposits, or 

 gray, or iridescent from absence of lime ; stalk opaque, 

 conical, black below, white above, 0*3 to 0"7 mm', long, up 

 to 200 /* diameter at the base, 80 /* diameter at the apex, 

 projecting into the sporangium and continuing as a dense 



