BADHAMIA 25 



tinguish this from some forms of F. septica to which it bears a close 

 resemblance; the spherical or slightly irregular but not at all elliptical 

 spores from F. cinerea. 



Apparently western: Iowa, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Ari- 

 zona, Oregon. 



5. Fuligo megaspora Sturgis 



Colo. Coll. Pub. Sc. Ser. 12 : 443. 1913. 

 PI. I, Fig. 13. 



iEthalia pulvinate, 15-40 cm. in diameter, covered with a thick 

 spongy incrustation of lime, white, or yellowish toward the base; 

 interior of convolute tubes, the walls membranous, brittle, charged 

 throughout with white granules of lime 1.5-2 ix in diameter; capillitium 

 scanty, of delicate, colorless, anastomosing tubules bearing toward the 

 center large, white, branching calcareous nodules; spores spherical or 

 somewhat oval or irregular in outline, dark purplish brown, rough- 

 tuberculate, the surface markings often united into branching lines 

 forming an irregular and incomplete reticulation, 15-20 fx. 



To the naked eye the aethalia suggest F. septica var. Candida, but the 

 large, dark, irregularly roughened and often subreticulate spores dis- 

 tinguish it at once. A collection from New Mexico by Bethel, noted 

 as occurring directly on the hot desert sands as well as on the trunks 

 of Juniperus, is noteworthy for the extreme density and firmness of 

 the calcareous portion of the fructification and the paucity of spores. 



Colorado, New Mexico, Florida; Africa. Not common. 



2. Badhamia Berk, emend. Rost. 

 Mon. 139. 1875. 

 1852. Badhamia Berk., Trans. Linn. Soc. 21 : 153. 



Sporangia simple or rarely plasmodiocarpous; peridium thin, break- 

 ing irregularly; capillitium composed of anastomosing tubules, forming 

 a network which is calcareous throughout, the nodes often only slightly 

 enlarged; stipe, when present, membranous or hair-like; columella 

 present or absent; spores in some species adherent in clusters. 



The genus is closely related to Physarum but may ordinarily be 

 distinguished easily by the wholly calcareous capillitium. Individual 

 collections occur in which the capillitium may be more or less physa- 

 roid. Brandza (1926) cites certain extreme instances of this as a re- 

 sponse to the external conditions under which the sporangia are 

 formed. Howard (1931) shows that the capillitium of Physarum 



