88 



THK .TOrRVAl OF FOTWY 



found in consiilen\ble alnnulaneo. Soniotinio;? liiey are on the livins: 

 ivy leaves, but mostly between the hiyers of wet and compacted dead 

 leaves that have collected to some depth in sheltered hollows. 



DiDYMiiM Tkoohus List. This species has abounded at intervals 

 durin^: the last eighteen mouths in the stack-yards at Chaul End 

 and the neiiihbonrhood. It was in iiieat abundance when we visited 

 the spot with Mr. Saunders in August, 1809 : and he has since 

 found it in still greater profusion, and writes that it is so common 

 that he has now ceased to gather it. He has come npon the 

 buttercnp yellow Plasmodium not infrequently in the deeper layers 

 of straw, and has sent us a quantity of it in a tin box that we might 

 see its colour. — but it changed into sporangia in transit by post. 



Lepidoderma tiokintm Rost. (PL 110. tig. 8\ In the Brit. 

 Mus. Catalogue reference is made to a sessile form of this species 

 received from America, which bore a resemblance to a Chouiirio- 

 (ienna in that the sporangia were smooth, of an ochraceous colour, 

 and the sporangium-wall consisted of two layers, an onter one 

 densely charged with minnte angular granules of lime, and more or 

 less closely adhering to a yellow membranous inner layer : in these 

 respects they differed from the normal form, in which the sporangia 

 are nsually stalked, and the lime is deposited over the surface in 

 more or less scattered vitreous disc-like scales. An interesting 

 confirmation of the specitic identity of the two forms was afforded 

 by a specimen received from Dr. Sturgis. of New Haven. U.S.A., 

 in June, 1897. It is a beautiful example of the typical stalked 

 form, but in a few sporangia a deposit of crowded angular cal- 

 careous granules was present in narrow patches of a pale colour 

 among the disc-like scales : this deposit extended in one sporangium 

 over half the surface, prodncing an ochraceous outer wall corre- 

 sponding with that of the sessile American specimens above de- 

 scribed : the other half ha.i the normal aspect with vitreons scales 

 scattered over a dark ground : in short, we had in this sporangium, 

 one side representing a T.^'piiiodermn, and the other a Chondriodr-nna 

 (PI. 419, fig. 3b~i. On September 24th. 1899, in a glen at Llan-y- 

 Mawddwy. lemon-yellow Plasmodium was observed on moss and 

 Junuc'nnanni.i on the wet vertical face of rock, and extending in 

 scattered patches for about 100 yards along the side of a narrow 

 path. Heavy rain fell on tiie three succeeding days, and during 

 that time fresh plasmodium continued to make its appearance : it 

 was carefully secured and brought in-doors, where it matured into 

 sessile ochraceous sporangia of the Chondriodt-rjna form already 

 referred to. The sporangia were subhemispherical, or irregularly 

 shaped plasmodiocarps. often ring-shaped round a leaf: the two 

 layers of the sporanguim-wall were either adherent, or more or 

 less widely separated : the capillitium and spores were typical of 

 L. tiarinuni. Ring-shaped sporangia clasping the leaves of moss 

 and Jufw^rnhnuiia are also of frequent occurrence in the American 

 examples. Although the Welsh gathering is a fairly large one. we 

 were unable to discover a single sporangium of the normal Liviiio- 

 (ifntui type. and. had it not been for former experience, we should 



