DiACHEA 113 



bronze, seated on a white hypothallus; sporangial wall mem- 

 branous, colorless. Stalks when present short, stout, furrowed, 

 charged with white lime-granules. Columella white, convex, 

 conical, or short-cylindrical. Capillitium a network of slender, 

 purple-brown threads radiating from the columella. Spores pale 

 violet-gray, spinulose or warted, 8-11 ju diam. 



Type locality: Ceylon. 



Habitat: On dead leaves and stems. 



Distribution: *Canal Zone, Florida. 



Illustration: Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. pi. 211. 



The characters of the sporangium proper are those of D. 

 bulbillosa, and it would seem to be a sessile form of that species 

 were it not for the unusual hypothallus, which is the important 

 character. The authors say in their description that the spores 

 in material from Ceylon are distinctly rougher than those of 

 D. leucopodia, and this is confirmed by an examination of the 

 material. The Florida collection made by Dr. Erdman West 

 has sporangia typically embedded in the hypothallus, and the 

 spines on the spores are coarse and scattered as in D. bulbillosa. 

 In authentic material from Ceylon and South Nigeria, the dense, 

 continuous hypothallus is drawn into small patches with shallow 

 pits, one to each sporangium, and in which the sporangia are 

 partly embedded. The columella is usually a projection from 

 the hypothallus in the center of the pit, but is often absent. 

 The capillitium springs from this projection, or if absent, directly 

 from the hypothallus. There seem to be no floors to the spo- 

 rangia. The color of the plasmodium cannot be regarded as a 

 specific character because Martin (see D. bulbillosa) has observed 

 D. bulbillosa developing from a yellow plasmodium. D. radiata 

 may be a sessile phase of D. bulbillosa, developing under tropical 

 conditions, and this is indicated somewhat by the Florida speci- 

 men, in which there are many sporangia entirely free from the 

 hypothallus. 



6. Diachea Thomasii Rex, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila. 1892: 329. 

 1892. (N. Y. B. G. no. 5306, type material.) 



Plasmodium yellow. Sporangia in small clusters or crowded, 

 forming large colonies on a common, orange hypothallus, globose, 

 0.4 to 0.7 mm. diam., short-stalked or sessile, iridescent, metallic 

 brown or copper-colored; sporangial wall membranous, hyaline. 

 Stalk short, stout, orange, densely charged with orange lime- 



