1890.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 195 



Having collected and examined the specimens issued under both 

 of these numbers, I believe them to be referable legitimately to 'the 

 same s])ecies. 



They apparently form the extreme limits of what must be consid- 

 ered an extremely variable species, the intermediate and connecting 

 links of which exist, and can be demonstrated by the examination 

 of a sufficient number of specimens developed in different localities 

 under varying conditions of growth. 



Badhamia lilacina Fr., No. 2494. 



It is difficult for a student of the American Myxomycetes to de- 

 termine with certainty the species distributed under this number, 

 from the published descriptions. The proverbial inadequacy of de- 

 scriptions alone, in many cases, to create an intelligent conception 

 of the objects described, is in this instance abundantly illustrated. 

 The specimens distributed were all collected in the mountain dis- 

 tricts of New York, and may be considered as representing the Amer- 

 ican form of this species. In some of its characters, this form differs 

 so much from the original description of Fries and the later one of 

 Rostafinski (as given in the Myxomycetes of Great Britain — Cooke), 

 that an enlarged description is necessary to cover the points of dif- 

 ference. The most notable of these are the occasional development 

 of stipes, and the existence of a crustaceous layer of lime on the out- 

 side walls of the sporangia, which crumbles and falls away in flakes 

 at maturity, as in some of the double-walled Chondriodermas. 



In the form in which it is found in New York and Pennsylvania 

 the species may therefore be described as follows : 



Sporangia closely aggregated, globose or obovate, usually sessile 

 or substipitate, and occasionally stipitate. If stipitate, the stipe is 

 short, varying in size from a mere point to i of a mm. in height, 

 light chestnut-brown in color and longitudinally striate. 



Color of sporangia generally dull white above, becoming dusky 

 about the middle of the sporangia and shading into a bright brown 

 at the base. Capillitium white, composed of coarse irregular tubes 

 filled with snow-white granules of lime, radiating from the center, 

 which in most sporangia is occupied by a columella-like mass of 

 lime to the wall of the sporangia, and communicating with each 

 other by lateral branches. 



Walls of sporangia thick, composed of a membranaceous internal 

 layer, coated externally with a thick, easily separable layer of lime, 

 which ultimately breaks and falls away. Spores dark violet 11.5 to 



