152 REV. M. J. BERKELEY ON TWO NEW GENERA OF. FUNGI. 
the species, except by French botanists, and these appear to be for the most part mere com- 
pilations from Bulliard. DeCandolle’s account, for instance, in the second volume of the 
‘Flore Francaise,’ is only a transcript, as is also that of Chevallier; who adds to what 
DeCandolle says the circumstance mentioned by Bulliard, that when the fructifying mass 
is placed in water, the spores separate from one another as if they proceeded from a cap- 
sule, a circumstance which I have observed in one of the species, though not in the two 
which most nearly resemble the plant of Bulliard. 
Duby next gives the characters of a supposed Physarwm, under the name of P.? capsu- 
liferum, but as he describes the flocci as black, his plant cannot be the species of Bulliard ; 
and his remark that Desmazières, who published Didymium cinereum at No. 272 of his 
* Plantes Cryptogames du Nord de France,' thinks it may possibly be the same with that 
species, is conclusive as to the point, even though Bulliard has referred to Batsch's figure 
as a synonym of his Spherocarpus capsulifer. 
These are all the notices I can find of this species. It is not in the General Index to 
Fries’ ‘Systema Mycologicum,’ nor do I observe any notice of it in the text of his work, 
` where so singular a production might have been expected to claim observation. Fries, 
indeed, in his general remarks, says that conglobated spores are described in several 
Myxogastres, but that such states are, according to his observations, always abnormal ; 
which may be the reason why he has not noticed the species of Bulliard. 
That the spores are, however, essentially conglobated in the species under consideration, 
and do not form mere accidental clusters, arising from inequable distribution of moisture 
amongst the mass, or from any other mechanical cause, is most evident under the micro- 
scope, the external spores being indeed always attached to a larger body in the centre, so 
that, when they are quite disunited, the size is seen to vary considerably ; and in one spe- 
cies, where they are evidently echinulate, the little points are confined to those portions 
which were exposed after the fashion of the achzenia in Rhagadiolus edulis ; besides which, 
in an early stage of growth they are contained in a common sac. There is no doubt that 
‘several other Physara will be found to possess the same structure, and possibly all those 
species which have lamine rather than flocci; and now that attention has been called to 
ve D other instances may be found in other genera affording solid grounds for 
ure division. The species which are now generically combined, with one exception of 
M Didymioid aspect, not only agree in structure, but in habit; the main distinction, indeed, 
Toe eh eel ig min ion nh or 
structure, is entirely due, and I hire ther Pup san M cipit d 
, erefore dedicated the genus to him, in the hope 
that its characters are so well founded as t 
o ensure i mt i 
ee | | re a very main point in such 
Externally the fungi in questio 4 ues 
n, with í 
of the genus Physarum, th one exception, have the appearance of species 
e peridium being single and smooth, and the spores mixed with 
ines Sepe are broad and lamelliform in parts, but vary FF in breadth, and 
en mins "us in other Myxogastres ; but these spores grow in little acini- 
Mod pasa dot being single, as in other allied fungi, with the exception of Ener- 
, icularia and Ptychogaster; in the former of which, figured by Mr. Bowman 
