PHYSARUM 73 



Mon. 336, and Didymium echinosporum Mass., Mon. 239. But Massee's 

 description of his Tilmadoche is, naturally enough, at variance in 

 every important point with the facts in the species before us. Massee 

 describes the sporangia as deeply umbilicate below, sausage-shaped 

 and curved; the stem elongated, slender, erect, pale brown; capillitial 

 nodes scattered, fusiform, colorless or yellow; spores 16-17 fx. It is 

 evident that whatever Massee may have had in hand as he wrote, it 

 was not P. nicaraguense, which has spores 10-12 n and reverses the 

 remaining description. 



But Didymium echinosporum also defines T. reniformis, since Lister 

 says they are based on two gatherings of one species. Of echinosporum 

 Massee says: "Bearing a superficial resemblance to Tilmadoche nutans, 

 but distinct in the capillitium, which contains no trace of lime, and 

 in the spores," the dimensions of the latter being given as 12-14 fx. 

 Again it is evident that whatever Massee had in hand when he wrote, 

 it was not P. nicaraguense in which the capillitium is almost Badhamia- 

 like, i. e., burdened with lime! 



Worse than all, Mr. Massee's alleged types are in evidence; one 

 labelled P. reniforme includes forms of P. didermoides and of P. nica- 

 raguense; the other, labelled by Berkeley P. nutans, is P. nicaraguense 

 according to Petch, Mycet. Ceyl., who enters our species as from 

 Ceylon, and the names cited from Berkeley, Massee and others, as 

 synonyms. He remarks: "Probably Thwaites' 135 and 55 were mixed 

 during examination"! Doubtless! and some other things too! What 

 Massee did have beneath his lens, no one now may say but apparently 

 not in either case cited the physarum of Central America. 



Nicaragua; Ceylon, perhaps throughout the tropics. 



45. Physarum discoddale Macbr. 



N. A. Slime-Moulds ed. 2. 74. 1922. 



Sporangia gregarious, scattered, discoidal, depressed or umbilicate 

 above, sometimes almost annulate, snow-white, small, 0.5-0.7 mm. 

 in diameter, stipitate; stipe about twice the sporangium, pale yellow, 

 strand-like, but erect, even; hypothallus none; columella none; cap- 

 illitium strongly calcareous, almost as in Badhamia, aggregate at the 

 center, forming a pseudocolumella at the base of the peridium; 

 peridial wall firm, covered with innate patches of lime, somewhat 

 yellow at the base; spores minutely spinulose, violaceous, 9-11 fx. 



Miss Lister considers this a synonym of P. javanicum Racib. But 

 Raciborski's description is of a larger species with thinner stalk and 

 saucer-like sporangium, externally roughly resembling Trichamphora 



