466 W. C. Sturgis — Type- Specimens of Myxomycetes. 



and their relationships determined as nearly as possible. In the fol- 

 lowing notes I have endeavored to do this, paying special attention 

 to those species regarding which there is a considerable divergence 

 of opinion on the part of expert authorities. 



Badhamia magna, Pk. {Dictydium magnum, Pk.), Rep. XXIV, p. 

 84, 1871, and Rep. XXXI, p. 57, 1878.* Sporangia spherical to 

 obovoid, occasionally confluent, 0*8-r°'" in diameter; gray, irides- 

 cent and marked with white wrinkles ; clustered on long, yellow- 

 ish, membranous and filiform stalks 5-7™™ in length. Sporangium- 

 wall hyaline, almost devoid of lime and very delicate. Columella 

 absent. Capillitium, a loose, brittle network of delicate, branching 

 tubes, expanded at the angles ; partly filled with small, white lime- 

 granules, and partly empty and shrunken. Spores not clustered, dark 

 purplish-brown, 10.5-11. 5/a in diameter, minutely and equally spinu- 

 lose all over. (PI. LX, figs. 1 & 2.) Hab. On old Polyporus. 

 Loc. Center, N. Y. Leg. C. H. Peck. 



The type-specimen is a very fine and abundant one, exactly resem- 

 bling in outward appearance the long-stalked forms of B. utricu- 

 laris, Berk. It differs from that species, however, in the more deli- 

 cate and less calcareous capillitium and in the character of the 

 spores, which are not even loosely clustered and are much less dis- 

 tinctly spinulose. Although the spores are sometimes slightly darker 

 on one side than on the other, when highly magnified the whole sur- 

 face is seen to be evenly covered with the minute spines. From B. 

 hyalina it differs in the character of the stalk, the more delicate 

 capillitium, the segregation and finer markings of the spores, and the 

 habitat. (Cf. PI. LX, figs. 1-7.) For the present, at least, we must 

 consider Badhamia magna, Pk., as a distinct species, though allied to 

 B. utricularis, Berk., a fact also noted by Peck (Rep. XXXT, p. 57). 

 This close relationship is emphasized by the fact noted by Lister 

 (Mon., p. 31), that sporangia of ^. xitricidaris from the same i3las- 

 modiuni exhibit marked differences in the quantity of lime contained 

 in the capillitium and in the degree of agglutination of the spores. 

 The peculiar habitat of the two species is the same. 



Macbride doubtfully refers Peck's species to B. capsidifera 

 (Bull.), Berk. \B. hyalina (Pers.), Berk.], on the mistaken supposi- 

 tion that the spores are coherent. In his Key to the species of Bad- 

 hamia (N. Amer. Slime-Moulds, p. 63), it falls readily under B. tttric- 

 idaris, Berk. 



* Throughout this paper these references are to the Annual Eeports of the State 

 Botanist of New York, published in the reports of the New York State Museum 

 of Natural History. 



