SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 



The taxonomy of the slime molds cannot be regarded as established, 

 either with reference to the general outlines of the treatment of the 

 group as a whole or to the detailed application of specific names. In 

 the present work, as stated in the introduction, the attempt has been 

 made to apply specific names in accordance with the International 

 Rules of Botanical Nomenclature as revised at Cambridge in 1930. 

 Unfortunately, at the present writing, three and one-half years after 

 the Cambridge meeting, the revised rules have not been published 

 and it has been necessary to depend upon the printed "Proceedings," 

 which are far from clear in indicating modifications of the earlier code. 

 Aside from this circumstance, the difficulties in the way of applying 

 rules consistently are sufficiently great in any case, but peculiarly so 

 in the case of forms like the Myxomycetes. The great majority of the 

 commoner species were described by the older students of the fungi, 

 sometimes exceedingly vaguely, to be sure, but not seldom with re- 

 markable vividness. It is only since the time of de Bary and Rosta- 

 finski, however, that stress has been placed upon microscopic char- 

 acters, and these, which have come to be regarded as of the utmost 

 significance, are almost wholly ignored in the older descriptions. In 

 view of the tentative nature of much of the synonymy cited, it has 

 seemed desirable to err on the side of conservatism and retain widely 

 recognized names in a number of cases where, on the face of the 

 record of synonymy, a change is demanded. Many of these cases are 

 referred to in the text. Certain others may be mentioned here. 



Badhamia rubiginosa (Chev.) Rost. (p. 38), was originally described 

 by Chevallier in 1826 as Physarum rubiginosum. This name had, how- 

 ever, been applied by Fries in 1817 to a different and still valid species 

 (p. 51) and hence was invalid from the beginning according to any 

 rules. The specific name as applied to a Badhamia is appropriate 

 and in general use, and the application of the later synonymy is by 

 no means certain. It might well be conserved. 



Physarum aureum Brandza, 1929 (p. 49), revives a name originally 

 applied by Persoon in 1794 to what he himself called the following 

 year Physarum viride, based on Bulliard's Sphaerocarpus viridis of 

 1791, which name is now generally accepted. The rules do not permit 

 the combination Brandza proposed. His species, however, needs 

 further study, pending which, the name he gave it may be permitted 



to stand. 



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