210 NOTES ON SOME RARE SPECIES OF MYCETOZOA. 



B. MAGNA Peck. Mr. F. L. Harvey has sent to the British 

 Museum a specimen of this rare species gathered at Orono, Me., 

 U. S. A., hy Mr. C. W. Knight, in October, 1896. Tiie spores differ 

 shghtly from those of Pecli's type in being more distinctly spinulose 

 under high magnification. 



B. uEciPiKNs Berk. A specimen of this species has been kindly 

 submitted to me for inspection by Mr. Robert E. Fries, of Upsala. 

 It was found by him in Wermland, Sweden, in 1896, on oak bark ; 

 it closely resembles Curtis's type from S. Carolina in the Strassburg 

 collection. This appears to be the second recorded gathering in 

 Europe. 



B. RUBiGiNosA Eost. A large form of this species was found at 

 Bryn Dinas Mawddry, North Wales, in Sept. 1895. The sporangia 

 are globose, 0-8 mm. diam., flattened and somewhat umbilicate 

 beneath, on stout cylindrical stalks about 0-5 mm. long. The 

 Plasmodium was bright yellow, spreading over moss and rock. 

 An abundant gathering of the usual pyriform type was obtained 

 by Mr. E. S. Salmon in Epping Forest on Nov. 21st, 1896. All 

 the English gatherings of this species I have met with have the 

 spores marked with strong warts or broken bauds which distinguish 

 var. /j. dicti/ospora from var. a. gauiina. 



Physarum vernum Somf. rUismodiiun probably white. Spormu/ifi 

 sessile, more or less crowded, hemispherical or somewhat elongated 

 plasmodiocarps ; white, or iridescent from the absence of lime in 

 the sporangium-wall ; occasionally seated on a membranous whitish 

 hypothallus. CapiUitium of numerous small angular white lime- 

 knots connected by many branching hyaline threads. Sometimes 

 the lime-knots are large and branching, or confluent, forming a 

 pseudo columella. Spores spinulose (magnified 1600 times), dark 

 violet-brown inclining to red, 8-12 fx diam. 



Hab. On dead leaves and twigs. 



Part of the type of this species from Sommerfelt's herbarium, 

 named by himself and gathered at Christiania in May, 1827, has 

 been furnished me by Prof. A. Blytt. It is perfectly matured, but 

 the sporangia are mostly broken, and the white capillitium with 

 its numerous lime-knots projects in little heaps above the ruptured 

 sporangium-wall. Although the lime-knots are usually small and 

 angular, they vary much in size, and are sometimes branched with 

 few connecting hyahne threads, approaching the capillitium of 

 Badhamid in form ; this circumstance may have led Rostafinski to 

 include it under the latter genus in his monograph as Badhamia 

 verna. On the one hand, it is allied to Phijsanua cinereum, which 

 it resembles in the sessile plasmodiocarps as well as in the capil- 

 litium ; in the latter species we often meet with a capillitium 

 consisting of a network of broad threads charged with lime almost 

 throughout with true Badlnmiia character. On the other hand, it 

 is allied to I'/ii/saruin cumpresmui. in the dark spores. We have met 

 with the form duriug many years. In Epping Forest it is rather 

 abundant on dead holly-leaves. Here the sporangia are most 

 frequently of iridescent-purple colour from the absence of lime 

 in the walls, but others have the walls charged with hme. We 



