36 THE MYXOMYCETES 



a paler area of dehiscence, 12-15 ix, averaging 13.5 n of which 2 jj, repre- 

 sents the spiny margin. 



Close to B. macrocarpa and B. gracilis, and like these and re- 

 lated species with a more or less physaroid capillitium, but dis- 

 tinguished by its ashy color, the heaped sporangia and the extremely 

 dark, coarsely and densely spiny spores. In appearance not unlike 

 some specimens of Physarum cinereum, but the capillitium distinctly 

 more badhamioid than physaroid, and the spores much larger, darker 

 and rougher. 



Colombia. 



16. Badhamia panicea (Fr.) Rost. 



ex Fuckel, Symb. Myc. Nachtr. 71. 1873. 

 PL III, Figs. 35, 36. 



1829. Physarum paniceum Fries, Syst. Myc. 3 : 141. 



1847. Reticularia schmitzii Debey, Verh. nat. Ver. preuss. Rheinl. 1:1. 



1873. Badhamia vema (Somm.) Rost. ex Fuck., Symb. Myc. Nachtr. 145, in part. 



Sporangia white or cinereous, gregarious, or aggregated in closely 

 compact clusters, globose or hemispherical, 0.4-1.2 mm. in diameter, 

 sessile; hypothallus scanty, inconspicuous, very dark red, rarely with 

 a short, red stalk; peridium thin, thickly dotted with white calcareous 

 scales; columella none, although a pseudocolumella often appears, 

 formed by a more dense development of the capillitium near the center 

 of the lower part of the sporangium; capillitium abundantly developed, 

 quite uniformly thickened, but showing an occasional delicate con- 

 necting thread, the nodes also somewhat flattened and enlarged; 

 spore-mass black; spores free, by transmitted light bright violaceous 

 brown, minutely punctate, 11-13 /x. The plasmodium is said to be 

 white. Miss Lister separates forms having spores which are dark on 

 one side and paler on the other as var. heterospora. 



In America this seems to be mainly a western species. Specimens 

 are before us from western Iowa and from Colorado, South Dakota, 

 Nevada, Oregon, southern California and Europe. It is very well 

 marked, though liable perhaps to be mistaken at first sight for sessile 

 phases of Physarum notabile or P. cinereum. The capillitium is, how- 

 ever, at once determinative. In addition to the states mentioned, 

 reported from Washington, Bolivia, Argentina. 



Var. nivalis Meylan is reported as occurring at the margin of snow 

 banks in Switzerland. 



B. goniospora Meylan, Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sc. Nat. 56 : 66, 1925, 

 lacks a hypothallus and has larger, somewhat irregular spores. It is 



