LEOCARPUS 101 



8. Cienkowskia Rost. 

 Versuch9. 1873. 



Fructification plasmodiocarpous, irregularly dehiscent, the wall a 

 thin cartilaginous membrane destitute of lime, except for the capillitial 

 attachments within; capillitium scanty but rigid, and characterized 

 everywhere by peculiar hook-like branchlets, free and sharp-pointed, 

 the spores as in Physarum. 



The genus contains, so far, but a single species : 



Cienkowskia reticulata (Alb. & Schw.) Rost. 



Versuch9. 1873. 

 PI. VII, Figs. 143, 144, 145. 



1805. Physarum reticulatum Alb. & Schw., Consp. Fung. 90. 

 1829. Diderma reticulatum (Alb. & Schw.) Fr., Syst. Myc. 3 : 112. 



Plasmodiocarp an elongated, irregularly limited, close-meshed net, 

 closely applied to the substratum, the wall thin, transversely rugulose 

 and roughened, dull orange-yellow, splashed here and there with 

 scarlet, sometimes entirely red, within marked by transverse cal- 

 careous ridges, supporting in part the calcareous system of the cap- 

 illitium; capillitium of delicate, rigid, reticulating yellow tubules or 

 threads with numerous free, uncinate or sickle-shaped branchlets, and 

 large, irregular, calcareous plates, more or less transverse to the axis 

 of the sporangium, attached to the peridial walls, as if to form septa; 

 ordinary calcareous nodules few; spore-mass jet-black, spores by 

 transmitted light pale violaceous, minutely roughened, 9-10 fx. Plas- 

 modium deep brownish red. 



Rare in the United States; easily recognized under the hand lens, 

 much more by the microscopic characters quoted; probably often over- 

 looked by the collector, as to the naked eye it presents the appearance 

 of some imperfectly developed, dried-up Plasmodium. Very unlike 

 Physarum serpula Morgan, not infrequently offered by collectors as 

 Cienkowskia. It is Diderma reticulatum of Fries, who, strangely 

 enough, thought it might be a plasmodial phase of Diderma verni- 

 cosum (i. e., Leocarpus fragilis) (Syst. Myc. 3 : 112). 



Eastern United States and Ontario to Iowa, California; Europe, 

 Ceylon, Malay Peninsula, Java, Japan. 



9. Leocarpus Link 

 Mag. Ges. Nat. Fr. Berl. 3 : 25. 1809. 



Peridium double, the outer wall thick, smooth, polished, smooth 

 inside or with deposits of lime, the inner wall delicate, hyaline; cap- 

 illitium of two more or less distinct systems, the one a delicate network 



