LYCOGALA 245 



slender and branching; spore-mass pale, ochraceous; spores by trans- 

 mitted light colorless, almost smooth, 5-6 /*. 



Found in the same situations as L. epidendrum. Recognizable by its 

 gregarious habit, not crowded nor superimposed, small size and dusky 

 color. The little spheres occur a dozen or more in a place, dark lead 

 colored, shading to black, opening rather regularly at the top. It looks 

 like a depauperate L. epidendrum, and is so regarded in the Lister 

 monograph, but seems to be constantly collected. The same reference 

 work describes the spores as "usually rosy-pink." Morgan described 

 them as pale ochraceous and this agrees with the four collections in the 

 Morgan herbarium. 



Our specimens are from Ontario, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, 

 Washington, British Guiana; Rumania. Widely distributed but not 

 common. 



3. Lycogala flavo-fuscum (Ehr.) Rost. 



Versuch3. 1873. 

 PI. XVI, Figs. 406, 407. 



1818. Diphtherium flavo-fuscum Ehr., Sylv. Myc. Berol. 27. 

 1829. Reticularia flavo-fusca (Ehr.) Fr., Syst. Myc. 3 : 88. 

 1895. Lycogala repletum Morg., Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist. 18 : 40. 

 1932. Verrucosia corticola Teng, Contr. Biol. Lab. Sc. Soc. China, Bot. ser. 

 7 : 124. 



/Ethalia solitary or sometimes two or three or more together, large, 

 2-4 cm. in diameter, spherical or spheroidal, purplish gray or brown, 

 smooth, shining; peridium thick, in microscopic section showing two or 

 three successive layers; capillitium of abundantly branching, irregular, 

 transparent tubules, marked by numberless warts and transverse rings 

 or wrinkles; spores in mass yellowish gray, by transmitted light color- 

 less, faintly reticulate, 5-6.5 /jl. 



This, one of the largest and most striking of the slime molds, is 

 generally mistaken for a puff-ball. It occurs on stumps and rotten logs 

 of various sorts, in the Mississippi valley more often affecting stumps 

 of Acer saccharinum L. The fructification, when solitary, is about the 

 size of a walnut, though sometimes larger; when clustered, the in- 

 dividuals are smaller. The form depends largely upon the place in 

 which the fruit is formed. The plasmodic mass is so large that its form 

 is determined by gravity. Thus on the lower surface of a log raised a 

 little distance from the earth the aethalium is often pyriform. This fact 

 did not escape Micheli. See Nov. Plant. Gen., pi. 95. The Plasmodium 

 is pale pink, soon becomes buff when exposed in fruiting, finally pallid 

 or somewhat livid, and is outwardly changed into the stout tough 



