MYCETOZOA OF CEYLON. 339 



orange-red, sometimes yellow- brown, or red-brown. The 

 red centre of the lime knots is also a variable feature ; some 

 have red centres, others are tinged red throughout, while in 

 many cases they are entirely pale yellow or nearly white ; all 

 these variations may occur in a single sporangium. The 

 occurrence of spherical granules in the Ume knots is not pecuhar 

 to this species, but appears to be a fairly common phenomenon 

 in tropical forms. 

 Peradeniya. 



Physarum gyrosum, Rost. 



This species was found developing on the surface of soil 

 fairly rich in vegetable refuse. The plasmodium when first 

 observed, in the evening, formed white columns projecting 

 from the surface. Next morning these had collapsed and 

 formed a flattened crust consisting of masses of contorted 

 plasmodiocarps, or isolated small rosettes, gray with a reddish 

 tinge, on a reddish hypothallus. Another plasmodium was 

 found ripening on the side of a hole which had been dug to 

 receive a cacao seedling, and as it was thought that the first 

 might have been damaged by rain, the hole was covered with 

 large leaves. The projecting columns of plasmodium were 

 up to 1-5 cms. high, but they collapsed into rosettes, some- 

 times confluent, as before. The sporangia are gray with a 

 reddish tinge, sometimes blotched with red, or lilac from 

 absence of hme ; wall single, membranous, with dense clusters 

 of spherical lime granules in rounded masses ; capiUitium of 

 rigid, hyahne threads, sometimes forming a net, with large 

 white irregular hme knots ; spores minutely spinulose, 8 /^ 

 diameter. 



Peradeniya. 



Physarella mirabilis, Peck. 



Physarum rufibasis, B. & Br. Fungi of Ceylon, No. 762. 



The type specimen of Physarum rufibasis in the Peradeniya 

 herbarium is in bad condition, but consists of rather broad 

 and flattened sporangia of Physarella mirabilis. 



This species is rather common at Peradeniya. It frequently 

 occurs in large numbers on diseased specimens of tea, rubber, 

 cacao, &c., kept on the laboratory verandah, or in glass dishes 

 containing similar specimens in the laboratory. On one 



