136 Mycetozoa of North America 



Habitat: On rotten coniferous wood among mosses and 

 lichens. 



Distribution: *British Columbia, California, Colorado, 

 *Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, *Ohio, 

 Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, *Washington. 



Illustration: Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 3. pi. 114. 



This species is rarely collected, but this is explained by the 

 concealment of the sporangia among mosses and lichens, and the 

 fruiting period, which appears to be once a year in late autumn 

 when many of the collectors are inactive. It forms large develop- 

 ments, and is readily recognized b>' the massive sporangia on 

 large, stout, orange stalks, and the numerous crystalline scales 

 scattered over the peridial walls. It is probably more widely 

 distributed in the east than the records indicate. 



2. Lepidoderma Carestianum (Rabenh.) Rost. Mon. 188. 1874. 



Reticularia Carestiana Rabenh. Fung. Eur. II. no. 436. 1862. [Bot. Zeit. 20: 



198. 1862.] (N. Y. B. G. no. 6816, type material.) 

 Amaurochaete minor Sacc. & Ellis; Sacc. Michelia 2: 566. 1882. (N. Y. B. G. 



nos. 5607, 5608, type material.) 



Plasmodium black (Lister). Fructification plasmodiocarpous, 

 forming effused, flattened, or pulvinate plasmodiocarps, or elon- 

 gate and confluent sporangia, 1 to 15 mm. long, 0.4 to 1 mm. 

 thick, brownish gray, more or less clothed with white, crystalline 

 scales of lime; sporangial wall cartilaginous, brown or purplish. 

 Columella convex, absent, or represented by the thickened, dark 

 brown base of the sporangium, spongy within, and enclosing 

 rounded nodules of lime. Capillitium of colorless or purple-brown 

 threads, 1-2 ix thick, branching and anastomosing, often marked 

 with dark, bead-like warts. Spores purplish gray or purplish 

 brown, spinulose, 10-15 /x diam. 



Var. granuliferum (Phill.) Lister, Mycetozoa ed. 2. 140. 1911. 



Didymium granuliferum Phill. Grevillea 5: 114. 1877. (N. Y. B. G. no. 5570, 



type material.) 

 Lepidoderma gramdiferum (Phill.) R. E. Fries, Arkiv Bot. 6 (7): 3. 1906. 



Capillitium of branching, anastomosing, or netted, purplish 

 brown or nearly colorless threads, with expansions or vesicles 

 enclosing nodules of lime. Spores larger than in the typical form, 

 usually 12-18 n diam., sometimes paler on one side. 



Type locality: Italy. 



