A NEW VARIETY OF ENTERIDIUM OLIVACEUM EHRENB. 211 



in the clustered spores, but in the structure of the sporangium- 

 wall, which is shining and smooth, with minute granular matter 

 diffused throughout its almost homogeneous substance. In Licea 

 flexuosa the wall has a dull opaque appearance, occasioned by the 

 deposit of refuse matter in the form of rough aggregations spread 

 over the surface of the membranous inner layer. In examining 

 several specimens of the new form, we also find that a pseudo- 

 capihitium is by no means universally absent, but in some cases 

 the plasmodiocarp bears on its inner surface membranous bands 

 and folds connecting the base with the upper wall, having a strong 

 resemblance to the pseudo-capillitium in an lethalium of /','. olUutceum, 

 though developed to only a small degree. Taking the above charac- 

 ters into consideration, there is reason to conclude that, notwith- 

 standing the wide difference in general appearance from the usual 

 fethalioid form of K. ulLvaceuin, these gatherings should be classed 

 as a variety of that species. At the same time, on account of the 

 constancy of the plasmodiocarp habit exhibited in the four gatherings 

 which have come under my notice, it is entitled to a distinct varietal 

 name, and I propose to mark it as E. olivaceam var. I i ceo ides* 



Within a few yards' distance from the specimens of the above- 

 named variety found at Leighton Buzzard, a few small ^thalia of 

 E. oUvaceum were gathered, of pulvinate form, and with the pseudo- 

 capillitium perfectly developed; but in these the spores were free, 

 with no appearance of the usual clustering, though in all other 

 respects they were typical, and like other gatherings found in the 

 same plantation with clustered spores. A similar form with free 

 spores is in the collection of Prof. Balfour. 



A type specimen of Knteridium Nostnipii Kaunk. has courteously 

 been supplied to the British Museum by Dr. Rauukier, of Copen- 

 hagen. It is a thin aethalium, and, having dried too quickly, is not 

 perfectly mature, otherwise it is a typical form of Enteridlum 

 olicaceum. It has the usual pseudo-capillitium consisting of the 

 perforated walls of the component sporangia, and the clustered 

 spores measuring 10-12 [x diam., of the same size as those in the 

 type specimens of the latter species in the British Museum, Kew, 

 and Strassburg herbaria. It is part of a longer pethalium, and is 

 2-5-4 mm. broad, 19 mm. long, and 0-4-0-75 mm. thick; the 

 diameter of the sporangia composing the tethalium is 0-2-0'3 mm. 

 Dr. Raunkier explains in a letter that, finding the spores to be so 

 much larger than the measurements given by Schroeter, viz. 6-8 ft, 

 he published the description of his gathering under a new name, 

 "until more could be known about it." The aethalium does not 

 consist of "one layer of sporangia,"! but preparations from the 

 thinnest part so much resemble those of the plasmodiocarp of var. 

 Uceuides that it confirms the opinion that the latter is a form of 

 E. olivaceum. 



* In the description of Licea flexuosa in the British Museum " Guide to the 

 British Mycetozoa," p. 32, the spores are mentioned as sometimes occurring in 

 clusters, a character based on the Appin and Leighton specimens. On the view 

 here adopted this statement should be omitted from the account of the species. 



t Cfr. British Museum Catalogue of Mycetozoa, p. 159. 



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