76 ENDOSPOREAE [PHYSARTJM 



to be on the borderline between the genera Physamm and Fuligo ; 

 the sporangia are eitlnT simple, or form a net which may be regarded 

 either as a much branched plasmodiocarp or as a small aothalium. 

 Dr. J aim describes his finding the sporangia repeatedly on earth and 

 seedling plants in the forcing-houses of the Botanic Gardens, Berlin ; 

 it has also been found in the open air in Germany. Mr. T. Petch, 

 writing from Ceylon, says, "I found one evening a creamy-white 

 Plasmodium emerging in small pillars about 1 cm. high from the sides 

 of holes <i inches deep on land prepared £ Qr pi antm g CO coa. Next 

 morning all the pillars had collapsed into small rosettes on a central 

 pinkish hypothaUus ; with the exception of one piece on a blade of 

 grass the sporangia were all formed on stone, pieces of glass and earth, 

 and seemed to be in a continuous sheet, but they separated easily 

 from each other." Mr. K. Minakata describes his rinding the " pale 

 sordid yellow " plasmodium of this species " on the perpendicular 

 stone basement of an outhouse at Nakayama, Kii, Japan," forming a 

 mass 6 cm. across, and 12 cm. above the surface of the ground. It has 

 also been obtained from North and South America. 



Didymium daedalium Berk. & Br. (in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, 

 v. 366, 1850) is possibly the present species ; the description is as 

 follows : — " Sporangia connate, labyrinthine-sinuous, pale brick-red, 

 of the same colour as the short connate stalks, sprinkled with white 

 meal ; flocci white ; spores purple-black, smooth, globose. Hab. In 

 great abundance in a cucumber frame. — Milton, Norths. Spreading 

 far and wide in little globose masses ; stems reddish-brown, inclining 

 to orange, connate, as if composed of little flat bran-like membranes, 

 sporangia having a greyish tinge from the contained spores, which are 

 purple-black ; variegated with the white flocci, which are frequently 

 forked, and vary greatly in width, being in parts flat, broad, and 

 membranous." In the absence of the type this reference must remain 

 uncertain. 



Hab. On earth, leaves, etc. — Berlin (B.M. 2285) ; Ceylon (B.M. 

 2287) ; Japan (B.M. 2284) ; New York (B.M. 1970) ; Brazil (B.M. 



2286). 



44. P. Gulielmae Penzig Myx. Buit., 34 (1898). Plasmo- 

 dium yellow. Sporangia subglobose or reniform, sessile, 

 about 0*4 mm. diam., brownish-orange or chestnut- 

 brown, rugulose. clustered or heaped, often with a yellow 

 membranous hypothaUus ; sporangium- wall membranous 

 or somewhat cartilaginous, with abundant clustered deposits 

 of bro wish-yellow lime-granules. Capillitium a network of 

 hyaline threads with large white angular or branching lime- 

 knots. Spores purple-brown, spinulose, 10 to 12 /j. diam. — 

 Torrend Fl. Myx., 182. 



PI. 63. — a. sporangia (Sweden) ; b. capillitium and spores, with fragment of 

 sporangium-wall ; c. spore. 



Allied perhaps to P. virescens or possibly to P. contextum, but differing 

 notably from both in the combination of brown sporangia and white 

 lime-knots. Rostafinski's account of P. Famintzini (Mon., p. 107) 

 which has apparently been found only once, in Poland, and having 

 minute, crowded, dull chestnut sporangia and " milky yellow " lime- 

 knots, applies fairly well to P. Gulielmae, but we have nothing in the 



