81 



NOTES ON MYCETOZOA. 



By Arthur Lister, F.R.S. 



(Plate 419.) 



Badhamia versicolor, n.sp. (PL 419, fig. 2). Mr. W. Gran, 

 whose extensive gatherings of Mycetozoa in the West Indies are 

 recorded in this Journal for 1898, pp. 113-122, has discovered in 

 the neighbourhood of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, a Badhcunia which 

 appears to have been hitherto undescribed. The general characters 

 of the species are as follows : — Plasmodium ? Sporangia sessile, 

 subglobose, 0*8 -0-5 mm. diam., pure grey or grey with a tinge of 

 flesh-colour, scattered or in small groups ; sporangium-wall hyaline, 

 with innate clusters of lime-granules, the lime sometimes scanty 

 or wanting ; columella none ; capilhiium a coarse network of broad 

 or narrower bands densely charged throughout with lime ; in some 

 sporangia the granules contained in the capillitium are white, in 

 others apricot-coloured; spores ovoid or somewhat cuueate, arranged 

 in clusters of from ten to forty or more, purple-brown and minutely 

 warted on the broad end, pale and smooth elsewhere, 10 X 8- 

 12 X 9 /x diam. Hab. on lichen and moss on tree-trunks. 



The unbroken sporangia vary slightly in tint, as described above ; 

 when the sporangium-wall is ruptured and the spores are dispersed, 

 the contrast between those containing apricot capillitium and those 

 with white is very marked, and suggests the specific name adopted. 

 The prevailing colour is grey ; thus, in a superficial examination of 

 495 sporangia, 300 were classed as grey, and 195 as apricot ; 

 occasionally the lime is almost or entirely wanting in the white 

 capillitium, but this is exceptional. The spores differ from those 

 of any other species of the genus I am acquainted with ; the large 

 clusters take the form of hollow spheres, and the spores resemble in 

 their arrangement the drupes of a ripe raspberry ; they are remark- 

 ably translucent, and are but faintly tinted except on the side 

 turned towards the surface of the sphere (PI. 419, fig. 2 6-, d). The 

 habitat is also different from that chosen by other members of the 

 group. Mr. Gran describes the sporangia as being found breast- 

 high and upwards on most of the trees in his neighbourhood that 

 have lichen and moss on the trunks ; below this level they have 

 seldom been met with. The specimens we have received are on 

 yellow and grey lichen, principally on Phijscia parietina : some are 

 on moss {(Jrthotrichnm). Mr. Gran first gathered the species in 

 Sept. 1899 ; since that time it has frequently come under his 

 notice; in Sept. 1900, he speaks of it as being "in tolerable 

 abundance on elder, elm^ ash, &c., but very difficult to distinguish." 



B. versicolor appears to be allied on the one hand to B. Jujalina, 

 and on the other to B. nitens ; considering the minute size of the 

 sporangia, and their similarity in colour to the lichen on which 

 they rest, it is not surprising that the species has until now escaped 

 notice. Mr. Gran has searched for the plasmodium, but hitherto 

 without success. 



Journal OF Botany. — Vol.89. [March, 1901.] <i 



