NOTES ON SOUTH NIGERIAN MYCETOZOA 129 



often branched or irregularly lobed, closely clustered, sessile, clay- 

 coloured, 0-1 to 0-2 mm. diam., 0-5 to 1 mm. high, seated on a 

 yellow membranous hypothallus ; sporangium-wall membranous, 

 with abundant deposits of clay-coloured lime-granules and with a 

 few discoid calcareous crystalline bodies 10 to 20 fx diam. scattered 

 among the granules ; capillitium a network of hyaline threads, 

 with few ovoid or angular yellowish-brown lime-knots : spores 

 pale violet-grey, 5 to 5-5 /x diam., marked with small clusters of 

 minute warts ; from three to five of these clusters are seen on the 

 hemisphere. Habitat on dead wood, Agege, South Nigeria, 

 August, 1914. Mr. Farquharson describes how he had the good 

 fortune to catch sight of this very inconspicuous species as he was 

 returning from an expedition after having lost his companions in 

 the bush. It was on a piece of rotten wood in the plasmodium 

 stage and matured in his collecting box on the way home. The 

 sporangia form three or four clusters, 1 to 5 mm. diam., and are 

 almost exactly the colour of the wood they are on. Some have 

 developed imperfectly and are irregularly lobed, dull purple below 

 and clay-coloured above. This species is distinguished from all 

 others of the genus by the colour of the sporangia and lime-knots 

 and by the very small size of the spores. In several species of 

 Physarum the spore-markings take the form of clusters of 

 warts ; this is a constant character in P. straminipes Lister, and 

 is seen less conspicuously and less constantly in P. compressum 

 Alb. & Schw., in P. pusillmn (Berk. & Curt.) Lister, and in P. 

 Ijsittacinum Ditm. In the present species the spores are distinctly 

 spotted with small clusters of warts, but to what extent this is a 

 reliable character we must wait for further gatherings to decide. 

 P. digitatum is perhaps most nearly allied to P. virescens Ditm. 

 The specific name refers to the finger-like clusters of sporangia. 



FuLiGO SEPTiCA Gmel. Very abundant on decaying oil-palm 

 logs, etc., "sometimes forming enormous aethalia." 



F. ciNEREA (Schwein) Morg. Found in some abundance at 

 Ibadan on heaps of old cocoa-pods. The small pearl-grey pul- 

 vinate aethalia hav^e remarkably little lime in the smooth cortex ; 

 they are scattered over the pods, and vary in diameter from 2 to 

 8 mm. ; the capillitium is almost Badhamia-like ; the brownish- 

 purple spores are globose, 11 /x diam., or ellipsoid and 11 by 12 

 to 14 /x. Similar small grey sethalia have been obtained in the 

 Phillipine Islands by Prof. Merrill. 



Teichamphora pezizoides Jungh. Found on dead wood in 

 thick busb, both at Agege and Otta. They are magnificent 

 specimens with the fragile saucer-shaped sporangia well preserved. 

 The character of the capillitium is remarkably variable in this 

 species ; it may either consist of almost simple tubules filled 

 throughout with lime-granules, or of a network of slender threads 

 with or without lime-knots. The present gatherings have slender 

 capillitium with few small lime-knots ; the spores are pale purphsh- 

 grey, 7 to 9 // diam., and minutely spinulose ; in gatherings from 

 other regions they are often much darker, rougher, and larger. 



Physarella oblonga (Berk. & Curt.) Morgan. Mr. Farquharson 



