NOTES ON SOME RAKE SPECIES OF MYCETOZOA. 215 



Lyme Regis referred to in B. M. Cat. Mijc. 121, with faintly reticu- 

 lated spores 4 [x diam. Tiie latter specimen was found on larch- 

 bark lying on a thick bed of larch-needles. In both of these 

 gatherings the surface branches of the capillitium are elegantly 

 looped throughout, without free ends. They difi'er in this respect 

 from (.'. typhoides var. a, which always has free ends in the upper 

 part of the sporangium, and usually over the whole surface. If it 

 were not that, in addition to the faint reticulation on the spores, 

 the warts can be detected to which Dr. Rex drew attention as 

 characterizing the species C. ti/phoides, and also from the fact 

 that intermediate American forms appear to unite all the varieties 

 of Comatricha in which these curiously-warted spores are present, 

 the var. rnicroscopica would seem entitled to stand as a distinct 

 species. A gathering of this variety from Berlin is represented in 

 the British Museum by specimen 638, Sydow Myc. Marth 1866. 

 It was issued under the name of Stemonitisferruginea. 



C. Persoonh var. fusca, n. var. Throughout last autumn 

 C. Persoonii has been common in Epping Forest and Wanstead 

 Park. It was mostly of the typical form with gregarious sporangia 

 containing the usual pale lilac-brown spores. In Wanstead Park, 

 however, a large growth came up on dead leaves under brambles, 

 of more crowded erect sporangia, recognizable at a glance from the 

 ordinary form as taller and more rigid in appearance. The capil- 

 litium is dense ; the spores dark and similar to those of C. laxa, 

 from some forms of which with dense capillitium it is not easily 

 distinguished when individual sporangia are compared. Specimens 

 in the British Museum from Broome's collection had caused me 

 perplexity until I recognized them as being the same species as 

 the Wanstead form of C. Persoonii, which retained its distinctive 

 characters in continuous growths through Sept., Oct., and on to 

 Nov. 5th. The habitat on dead leaves, and the somewhat rufous 

 colour of the sporangia in the field, distinguish it from C. laxn, 

 which is found on sticks and logs ; and it so nearly resembles 

 some forms of typical C. Ptrsonnii that the only diagnostic feature 

 is the dark spores. As, however, it is represented by several speci- 

 mens in the Brit. Mus. Collection, and appears to be constant in its 

 characters, it may be useful to mark it by the varietal name of 

 fusca, in allusion to the colour of the spores. 



SiPHOPTYCHTUM Casparyi Rost. I havc received a fine and typical 

 specimen of this species from Mr. Robert E. Fries, of Upsala, who 

 gathered it last year in Wermland, Sweden. I know of no previous 

 record of its occurrence in Europe. , 



LicEA flexuosa Pcrs. was found in great abundance on chips 

 about the stumps of felled Scotch firs near Witley, Surrey, in 

 November, 1896, and February, 1897. 



Tkichia contorta var. lutescens. In the description of this 

 variety in P. M. ('i(t. Mi/c. 169, founded on my gatherings in 

 Norway in 1894, I stated that if further specimens should be 

 obtained confirming the constancy of the characters, it should be 

 made a distinct species. Dr. Nyman has sent mo a sjjecimen 



