56 Mycetozoa of North America 



with broad expansions at the axils and at the attachments to the 

 sporangial wall, and either with or without fusiform lime-knots, 

 or Badhamia-Uke and formed of membranous tubes filled with 

 lime throughout. Spores dark or pale purplish brown, spinose, 

 spinulose, or nearly smooth, 9-17 ju diam. (Plate 7, fig. 5.) 



Type locality: Java. 



Habitat: On dead wood. 



Distribution: Florida, Puerto Rico. 



Illustration: Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. pi. 72, as Tricham- 

 phora pezizoidea. 



The description is that of the Listers covering the wide range 

 of variation they have observed in their many years of study. 

 There are no valid reasons for regarding this species as other than 

 a Physarum. It is so close to P. javanicum that the latter might 

 be united with it as a phase with paler stalks. Specimens from 

 Puerto Rico are practically identical except for the stalks, which 

 in P. javanicum are straw-colored, and reddish brown in P. pezi- 

 zoideum. Specimens from Florida have dark, strongly spinose 

 spores about 12 yu diam. The species is abundant in the tropics, 

 but also occurs in the temperate zones. The specimen collected 

 by Pavillard and Lagarde, at Montpellier, France, has medium 

 colored, spinose spores 12 ^ diam. Other specimens vary con- 

 siderably in the color, size, and roughness of the spores, and in 

 the capillitium. 



2,2>. Physarum nutans Pers. Ann. Bot. Usteri 15: 6. 1795. 



Plasmodium watery white or yellowish gray (Lister). Total 

 height 1 to 1.5 mm. Sporangia gregarious, erect or nodding, 

 subglobose or lenticular, more or less flattened or concave be- 

 neath, 0.4 to 0.7 mm. broad, stalked, white, grayish white, or 

 iridescent from absence of lime; sporangial wall membranous, 

 with included white lime-granules in more or less dense clusters. 

 Stalk subulate, longitudinally wrinkled, and gray, yellowish, 

 olivaceous, or black, translucent above, sometimes opaque and 

 white from deposits of lime in the wall, the tube of the stalk con- 

 taining refuse matter. Capillitium of colorless slender threads, 

 branching at acute angles and anastomosing, with few flat expan- 

 sions at the axils, and few small, white lime-knots. Spores 

 brownish violet, minutely spinulose or nearly smooth, 8-10 /x 

 diam. 



