FULIGO 81 



Plasmodium? Aethalia pulvinate or depressed, sometimes 

 confluent or annulate, 1 to 6 cm. across, dirty white, greenish 

 white, or ochraceous, usually forming many aethalia from a single 

 Plasmodium, occasionally forming small clusters of heaped spo- 

 rangia. Cortex absent. The inner structure of the aethalium 

 like that of F. septica. The twisted and confluent sporangia of 

 the outer layer are well developed with walls, capillitia, and 

 spores. Sporangial wall membranous, colorless, densely covered 

 with a compacted shell of white lime-granules, sometimes sepa- 

 rable. Capillitium of short threads connecting large, white, 

 branching lime-knots, united in a dense mass at the center and 

 Badhamia-like. Spores purplish brown, globose, 9-12 fx diam., 

 a few occasionally ellipsoid or ovoid, distinctly spinulose. (Plate 

 15, FIG. 3.) 



Type locality: Colorado. 



Habitat: On dead wood, usually poplar. 



Distribution: *Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, *Iowa, 

 Kansas, *Montana, *New Mexico, New York, *Oregon. 



Illustration: Hagelstein, Jour. N. Y. Bot. Card. 38: 113, 

 fig., as F. septica. 



Unfortunately, the species was poorly described originally, 

 particularly in reference to the presence of a cortex. Hundreds 

 of aethalia personally collected in Nassau and Schoharie counties, 

 New York, indicate there is no cortex, and this character is the 

 most important one of the species. The spores are always larger, 

 darker, and rougher than those of F. septica, and proportionately 

 paler and smoother than those of F. cinerea. The spherical spores 

 predominate, there being only a few that are ellipsoid or ovoid. 

 The form was formerly regarded by Miss Lister as a variety of 

 F. cinerea with globose spores, but she writes now that she is 

 inclined to regard it as a distinct species. It seems to be inter- 

 mediate between F. septica and F. cinerea, but constant in many 

 gatherings. Forms referred to as F. septica (Mycologia 29: 398. 

 1937) are now regarded as the present species. 



3. Fuligo cinerea (Schw.) Morg. Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist. 19: 

 ZZ. 1896. 



Enteridiiim cinereum Schw. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 4: 261. 1832. 

 Lachnobolus cinereus Schw. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 4: 262. 1832. 



Plasmodium white (Lister). Aethalia pulvinate, elongate, 

 simple or branched, 4 to 60 mm. long, scattered or gregarious, 



