36 ENDOSPOREAB [BADHAMIA 



none. Capillitium yellow or pale orange, a coarse network 

 densely charged throughout with lime-granules, or formed 

 of large angular and branching lime-knots with few connecting 

 hyaline threads. Spores free, violet-brown, spinulose, often 

 rather paler and smoother on one side, 10 to 13 /x diam. — 

 Macbr. N. Am. Slime Moulds, 63. Physarum decipiens Curt, 

 in Amer. Journ. Sci., vi. 352 (1848). P. chrysotrichum Berk. 

 & Curt, in Grev., ii. 66 (1873). Badhamia chrysotricha Rost. 

 Mon., App. p. 4(1876). 



PI. l.—a. sporangia (South Carolina ; legit Curtis) ; b. capillitium and spores with 

 fragment of sporangium-wall ; c. spore. 



A portion of the type from South Carolina in the British Museum 

 (B.M. 994) has little left for identification, yet some spores and a frag- 

 ment of sporangium-wall which were scraped off are identical with a 

 good specimen in the Strassb. Herb, sent by Prof. Farlow from Curtis's 

 original gathering. B. decipiens is distinguished from B. nitens by having 

 free spores. From Pliysarum aariscalpium Cke., the stouter forms of which 

 it closely resembles, the present species differs in the absence of a stalk, 

 in the more complete Badhamia character of the capillitium, and usually 

 in the darker spores. MM. Pavillard and Lagarde describe the young 

 sporangia as being first milk-white, then saffron-yellow, then intense 

 green from the purple spores showing through the moist walls ; finally, 

 when dry, the sporangia assume an orange-yellow colour (see Bull. Soc. 

 Myc. Fr., xix. fasc. 2, 87 (1903). 



Hab. On dead wood. — Yorks (B.M. slide) ; Sweden (Herb. R. E. 

 Fries) ; Montpellier (B.M. 2073) ; Hartz Mountains (B.M. 2074) ; 

 South Carolina (B.M. 994). 



10. B. macrocarpa Rost. Mon., p. 143, figs. 118, 120 ,121 



(1875). Plasmodium white.* Sporangia sessile or stalked, 

 subglobose, aggregated or gregarious, 0-5 to 1 mm. diam., 

 greyish-white, rugose ; sporangium-wall membranous, varying 

 in the amount of included lime-deposits. Stalk when present 

 firm, about 0-7 mm. long, 0*03 to 0*1 mm. diam., furrowed, 

 yellow or brown. Capillitium an irregular network formed of 

 broad, branching white lime-knots, with narrower connecting 

 strands, charged throughout with granules of lime. Spores 

 dark purple-brown, minutely and closely spinulose all over, 

 not clustered, 11 to 15 ^ diam. — Mass. Mon., 317; Macbr. N. 

 Am. Slime-Moulds, 69. Physarum macrocarpon Ces. in Rabenh. 

 Fungi Eur., no. 1968 (1854), & in Flora, xxxviii. 271 (1855). 



PI. 8.— a. sporangia ; b. capillitium and spores ; c. spore ; (England). * | 



The American specimens of this species appear to be, as a rule, smaller 

 than the European gatherings, and the stalks, when present, are more 

 slender. 



Hab. On dead wood.— Flitwick, Beds (B.M. 1183); Staffordshire 

 (B.M. 1184); Holland (Leyden Herb.); France (K. 183); Berlin 

 (B.M. 434) ; Poland (Strassb. Herb.) ; Italy (B.M. 1792) ; Philadelphia 

 (B.M. 1185) ; Colorado (B.M. 2076) ; Japan (B.M. 2075). 



* Constantineanu describes the colour of the Plasmodium as yellow (Ann. Myc, iv. 512). 



