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MYCETOZOA OF ANTIGUA AND DOMINICA. 



By Arthur Lister, F.L.S. 



(Plate 385.) 



I AM indebted to Mr. William Cran, Principal of Coke College, 

 Antigua, for specimens of Mycetozoa gathered by him in the latter 

 part of 1896 and in 1897 in the island of Antigua, with a small 

 number obtained during a sbort visit to Dominica. They were sent 

 to me in order that they might be represented in the British Museum 

 Collection, and are interesting as being the first of the kind that 

 have been recorded from Antigua, and almost the first from the 

 West Indies. The species correspond for the most part with those 

 inhabiting the Southern States of North America, including several 

 that are common in this country. Many of the specimens add 

 greatly to our knowledge of forms which have been rarely met with 

 hitherto. Mr. Cran's attention has only recently been called to the 

 group from accidentally meeting with a copy of the little Guide to 

 the British Mycetozoa published by the Trustees of the British 

 Museum, and he may be congratulated on securing so much 

 valuable material in the intervals of close professional occupation. 

 The following are the species he has collected, often represented by 

 numerous gatherings : — 



1. Ceratiomyxa mucida Schroeter. On rotten wood. The speci- 

 mens from Antigua are graceful white forms of var. f3 fleamosa ; one 

 from Dominica approaches form «, and is of a pinkish tinge. 



2. Badhamia nitens Berk. On bark. A specimen from Antigua 

 resembles our English form, with the marked exception that the 

 spores are in clusters of four, instead of the usual arrangement of 

 six to ten ; they lack the coarse warts on the outer third which are 

 present on most, but not all, British gatherings. Another specimen 

 from Dominica is typical, with spores in rather loose clusters of 

 eight to twelve ; as in the Antigua gathering, they are scarcely 

 more warted on one side than the other. 



There is a specimen in the British Museum Collection from 

 Ceylon, No. 574, which I had placed in error under Badhamia 

 decipiens in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Myc. p. 33, not at first noticing that 

 the spores are in loose clusters of about six, which proves it to be 

 B. nitens. It was our only example of this species obtained to my 

 knowledge out of England before we received these from Mr. Cran. 



3. Badhamia macrocarpa Eost. On dead wood, Antigua. A 

 small form with slender buff- coloured stalks ; spores 11 /x diam. 



4. Badhamia panicea Eost. On bark, Dominica. The sporangia 

 are small, in groups of three or four ; the capillitium is more typical 

 of the genus than is often found in this species, being entirely devoid 

 of hyaline threads ; the spores are large, measuring 14 /x. 



5. Physarum variabile Eex. On dead leaves, Antigua. The 

 sporangia are branching plasmodiocarps, or subglobose with here 

 and there an indication of a rudimentary stalk ; the colour varies 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 36. [April, 1898.] k 



