116 MYCETOZOA OF ANTIGUA AND DOMINICA. 



colourless ; stalk slender subulate, or short and stout, red-brown or 

 orange, translucent ; capillitium a network of slender hyaline 

 threads with numerous flat expansions at the axils ; the lime-knots 

 yellow, augular or branching, but varying in different gatherings 

 with respect to size, shape, and number, as well as in the breadth 

 of the connecting threads ; spores pale violet-brown, very minutely 

 spinulose, 7-9 /x diam. 



I here interpose a reference to a species that is included under 

 Badhamia decipiens in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Myc. p. 33, which must 

 be separated from the group we have been considering ; the figures 

 there given, PL iii. B,a,b,c, were drawn from a specimen from Fair- 

 mount Park, Philadelphia, sent me by the late Dr. Rex as identical 

 with one in the Schweinitz Collection under the name of Phijmruni 

 reticulatum A. & S. (syn. CienJcowskia reticulanim Eost., an erroneous 

 naming by Schweinitz which has led to a misunderstanding in 

 America of the true character of CienkowsJda). Since the publi- 

 cation of the British Museum Catalogue, evidence has now come 

 to hand which proves the specific distinction between this and 

 B. decijnens. In the specimens I have seen the spores differ from 

 those of that species in being more distinctly warted on one side 

 than the other, the capillitium is paler in colour, and often more 

 truly that of a Pkysamm ; in these observations I am confirmed by 

 Dr. Sturgis. The species is referred by Mr. Massee to Physarum 

 r/yrosum Rost. (Mass. Monograph Mya-ogastres, -p. SOI) ; unfortunately 

 the type-specimen under that name in the Strassburg Herbarium is 

 a form of Fuligo septica. The name P. gyrosum could not therefore 

 be adopted for the American species ; but it has been well described 

 by Mr. Morgan under the name of Physarum Serpula, n. sp. in 

 " Myxomycetes of the Miami Valley, Ohio" (Journ. of Cincinnati 

 Soc. Nat. Hist. Aug. 1896, p. 101), so that at length it has obtained 

 a definite position. 



11. Physakum nutans Pers. var. y leucoph^um. On dead wood, 

 Antigua. A very limited specimen. The dark stalk extends into 

 the sporangium as a conical columella, from which radiate the scanty 

 hyaline threads of the capillitium ; these are sparingly branched, 

 and have broad flat expansions at the axils ; the lime-knots are 

 long, narrow, and forked; the spores are pale violet, 8 /x diam. 

 A conical dark columella is not uncommon in robust British speci- 

 mens of var. 7 ; but the capillitium of this from Antigua is different 

 from that met with in any of our English gatherings. It is in- 

 teresting to compare the Antiguan example with eight specimens of 

 P. nutans collected by Prof. Penzig in Java ; there are six in which 

 the capillitium resembles that from Mr. Crau, having branching lime- 

 knots sometimes running into a Badhaniia-like network, but much 

 more profuse than in the Antigua form ; the stalks are long and slender, 

 pure white, filled with refuse matter at the base, or dark below and 

 pale above. One of the eight specimens is typical P. nutans var. /?, 

 and another has an intermediate position between var. /3 and y. 

 None of the Java sporangia have a columella. Although these 

 Antigua and Java forms are striking, there appears to be no specific 

 character to separate them from P. nutans. 



