NOTES ON SOME RARE SPECIES OF MyCETOZOA. 211 



have gathered the iridescent form at Lynton, N. Devon, and in 

 Wanstead Park, Essex. At Lyme Kegis and also in N. Wales the 

 species occurs with white and usually widely-scattered sporangia, 

 the iridescent form being less common. There are specimens in 

 the Kew collection from Aiken, N. Carolina ; Cuba, Madras, and 

 Paraguay, placed under the name of Physarum cinereum, which 

 would now be referred to P. vernum. But the capillitium usually 

 contains small angular lime-knots filled with large lime-granules 

 1-2 /x diam., which often coalesce into a vitreous mass. The knots 

 are sometimes large and -unite into a pseudo-columella, or, again, 

 the capillitium has the character of Badhamia, as in the case of 

 P. cinereum, mentioned above. The spores, however, are always 

 constant in their dark colour, and before receiving Sommerfelt's 

 type I had contemplated publishing an account of the form as a 

 dark-spored variety of P. cinereum, which is normally characterized 

 by its pale spores ; it is satisfactory, however, to be able to trace 

 it to a species already named, for notwithstanding the intermediate 

 place it holds between its two companions, rendering some gatherings 

 difficult to determine, yet the main characters are constant. 



P. PENETRALE Rex. I have received a gathering of this Phy- 

 sarum from Dr. E. Nyman, who collected it in the Ivungsgarten, 

 Upsala, on July 31st, 1895. The species is remarkable in the 

 slender flesh-coloured stalk being prolonged as a columella through 

 more than half the length of the sporangium. Tlie present speci- 

 men corresponds in all respects with Dr. Rex's type. This is the 

 third recorded European gathering. The specimen in the Strass- 

 burg collection referred to in B. M. Cat. j\[ijc. 49, has no locality 

 given, and no name of the collector ; this in itself implies that it is 

 not of foreign origin. The other record is British. A small group 

 of nine sporangia on Junyennunnia on a pine-stick was collected by 

 Prof. I. Bayley Balfour at Moffat about the year 1879, but the 

 identity of the species was not discovered until last year. The 

 sporangia were all mounted in glycerine jelly on two slides ; one 

 of these is in the Royal Herbarium, Edinburgh, the other is in my 

 own collection. 



P. MfjRiNUM List. Dr. Nyman has furnished me with a specimen 

 of this species, gathered by himself in the Kungsgarten, Upsala, 

 July 31st, 1895. It is the sessile form similar to the specimen 

 from Moflat referred to in B. M. Cat. Myc. 42. This is the second 

 recorded European gathering. 



P. cALiDRis List. An interesting form of this species was 

 obtained at Witley, Surrey, in Sept. 189G. The sporangia are 

 nearly all sessile, a few having short stalks with characteristic red 

 colour and translucence. The capillitium is almost of Badliamia 

 type, with few hyaline threads ; the sporangia are strongly 

 rugose. In the capillitium and sporangium-wall the gathering 

 resembles the type of P. ni)dulitsum Cke. & Balf. from S. Carolina, 

 referred to in B. M. Cat. Myc 52. An extensive gathering near 

 Amesbury, Wilts, in Aug. 1895, has slender capillitium, with the 

 lime-knots almost absent in some sporangia. Other specimens 



p 2 



