204 THE MYXOMYCETES 



1. Lindbladia Fries 

 Summa Veg. Scand. 449. 1849. 



Fructification aethalioid; the sporangia short, tubular, sometimes 

 superimposed, sometimes forming a simple stratum, in the latter case 

 generally sessile, but sometimes short-stipitate, the peridium at first 

 entire, at length opening irregularly either at the sides or apex, beset 

 with granules; spores olivaceous. 



This genus was established by Fries in 1849 to accommodate a single 

 species of wide distribution and somewhat varying habit, which is 

 neither a tubifera nor yet a cribraria but offers points of resemblance 

 to each. It resembles Tubifera in its simple sporangia, opening without 

 the aid of a net; it is like certain species of Cribraria in the smooth 

 ochraceous-olivaceous spores and is allied to that genus by its gran- 

 uliferous peridium. 



Lindbladia effusa {Ehr) RosL 



Mon. 223. 1875. 

 PI. XIII, Figs. 328, 329. 



1818. Licea effusa Ehr., Sylv. Myc. Ber. 26. 



1849. Lindbladia tubulina Fr., Summ. Veg. Scand. 449. 



1851. ALthalium atrum Preuss, Linnaea 24 : 141. 



1854. Reticularia maxima Corda, Icon. 6 : 14, pi. 2, fig. 35. 



1892. Tubulina effusa (Ehr.) Massee, Mon. 41. 



Sporangia minute, either closely combined and superimposed, so as 

 to form a pulvinate aethalium, or crowded together in a single layer, 

 sessile or short-stipitate; the peridia thin, membranous, marked by 

 scattered plasmodic granules, often lustrous, sometimes dull lead 

 colored or blackish, especially above; stipe, when present, very short 

 but distinct, brown, rugulose; hypothallus well developed, membra- 

 nous, or more or less spongy in structure; spore-mass ochraceous; spores 

 under the lens nearly smooth, almost colorless, 6-7.5 fx. Plasmodium 

 brownish black. 



This very variable species has been well studied by Dr. Rex. See 

 Bot. Gaz. 17 : 201. In its simpler phases it presents but a single layer 

 of sporangia generally closely crowded together, sometimes free and 

 even short-stipitate! In the more complex phase the sporangia are 

 heaped together in a pulvinate mass in which the peridia appear as 

 boundaries of minute cells. In this case the outermost sporangia are 

 often consolidated to form a cortex more or less dense and shining. 

 In any case the hypothallus is a prominent feature; generally lami- 

 nated and of two or three layers, it is in the more hemispheric aethalia 



