Ecology and Phenology of Surrey Mycetozoa. 73 



frequent as var. inconspicua which is fairly common in March 

 and has even been recorded as late as May on the wood of 

 poplar, laurel, Acer plataiwides and cspeciall}' on holly. Speci- 

 mens of Hemitrichia Karstenii, Perichaena corticalis and T. 

 contorta var. inconspicua were all found gro\nng together on 

 the same log of hollv wood, looking so much ahke that it was 

 impossible to say, %^-ith the unaided eye, which was which. 



*ioo. T. alpina R. E. Fries (= T. contorta Rost. var. alpina 

 R. E. Fr.). It is unusual to come across an Alpine species in 

 the lowlands of Surrey, but such was the case last April, when 

 the first British record of this remarkable species was found on 

 black rotting laurel leaves, in a damp ditch at Weybridge. 

 Hitherto it has been recorded only from the mountainous heights 

 of Sweden, S\\'itzerland and Austria. It was not plentiful, in 

 fact there was onlv one small group, consisting of three plas- 

 modiocarps and two sporangia. It was a black, thick-walled 

 specimen, \rith bright yellow, rather thick, rugged capilUtium. 

 often forming loops. The sporangium wall was composed of 

 three lavers: the innermost pale yellow and membranous, 

 spinose or papillose; the middle one bro\^"n and homy and the 

 outermost merely a crust of dark granular matter. The Plas- 

 modium was rich orange red; the spores 12-1S/1, minutely 

 warted ; the capihitium orange yeUow 4-5 /n %vide furnished \rith 

 small spines and spirals studded \rith warts. 



*ioi. T. hitescens Lister. This is one of the rarer mycetozoa 

 and has been recorded from only five other counties so far, 

 \iz. Somerset, Worcester, Devon, Norfolk and Yorkshire. It 

 was first found in Surrey at the end of November 1920, on a 

 bitterlv cold dav with a strong north-easter blo\^ing and frost 

 on the ground. Nothing but the arrival of a fellow enthusiast 

 would have induced me to go out. The httle gold specks gleaming 

 through the ice caught my eye and, eventually, some forty or 

 more sporangia were found, scattered over a thoroughly rotten 

 alder branch. In December the same year another large colony 

 was discovered on the bark, and between the bark and the 

 outer sldn of waterlogged and rotten alder branches. Nearly 

 each indi\'idual sporangium had to be cut off separately, as 

 they are scattered and never more than three or four come 

 together in an occasional cluster. 



102. T. decipiens Macbr. may be gathered any month of 

 the year on rotten wood of lime, beech, oak. etc. 



103. T. Botrvtis Pers. Common. A profuse gathering of an 

 almost sessile and clustered form in January, on rotten alder 

 stumps, showed a wonderful variety of tints and shades from 

 crimson to purple black. In February- the usual purple brown 

 gregarious sporangia occurred on laurel branches, in March on 



