NOTES ON MYCETOZOA. 



165 



interrupted by large vesicles containing crystals of lime ; spores 

 brownish purple, ''9 to 10 [jl diam., strongly war ted, the warts 

 unevenly distributed, often in close clusters of three_ or four with 

 intervening smooth spaces, as seen with a ^L-mch objective. 



Badhamia ovispora Eacib. (PI. 386, fig. 3). I give a figure of 

 this species, which was described in the Journal of Botany for 

 September, 1897, p. 354, to illustrate the plasmodiocarp form it 

 sometimes assumes, and the ellipsoid shape of the spores. Although 

 the only other recorded gathering appears to be that by Raciborski 

 in Poland, which established the type, it is probably not uncom- 

 mon, to judge from the fact that it has been found in stackyards in 

 three localities in the summer of last year. 



Physarum vernum Somm. Within the last three months we 

 have received specimens representing several large growths of this 

 species, on straw, from the neighbourhood of Luton and Ampthill. 

 They are interesting as corresponding almost exactly with Sommer- 

 felt's type from Christiania. The sporangia vary in shape and 

 size ; those from Mr. Crouch, from Kitchen End, are mostly plas- 

 modiocarps, measuring 0-6 to 1 mm. broad, and sometimes 18 mm. 

 long ; the sporangium-wall is densely charged with lime, and in 

 some parts consists of two layers, the outer separating from the 

 inner. The capilhtium resembles that in Sommerfelt's type in 

 having a true Badhamia character in some parts, and abundant 

 hyaline threads in others ; the spores measure 9 to 10 fi, and are 

 rather paler than the type, but are distinctly darker than in 

 P. cinereiuu. Another specimen from Chigwell, Essex, has darker 

 spores again; the sporangia are small, and closely resemble those 

 of P. cinereum. I record these gatherings because of the indefinite 

 boundaries of this newly-revived species (described Journ. Bot. June, 

 1897), and because we had not before obtained it with the characters 

 of Sommerfelt's type so strongly marked, or in such abundance. 



DiACHCEA BULBiLLOSA (Berk.) Lister. Among the specimens of 

 Mycetozoa collected in Java by Prof. Penzig in 1896-7, and kindly 

 submitted to me for inspection, is a Diachcm which I have named 

 as above. It was found in abundance, sometimes thousands of in- 

 dividuals together, on dead leaves and stems in the Botanical Gar- 

 dens at Buitenzorg and Tjibodas. The sporangia are globose and 

 iridescent, on conical white stalks ; these are densely charged with 

 lime, and extend into the sporangia to about half their height as 

 columellaj ; the capillitium is a network of purple-brown threads 

 spreading from the columella to the membranous sporangium-wall; 

 in part of the gatherings the stalks are brown and narrow above, 

 and expand below into a broad white base ; the lime they contain 

 is in the shape of angular nodules. This latter form corresponds 

 with the type of Didymium bidbillosum Berk. & Broome from Ceylon, 

 published in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xiv. p. 81 (Brit. Mus. Coll. 

 No. 592 ; Berkeley's herb., Kew, No. 1514). It is referred to Brit. 

 Mus. Cat. Myc. p. 91, under Diachoea elegans Fr. as differing from 

 the usual type of that species in the globose heads and rougher 

 spores. The occurrence of the form in such abundance in Java*, 



