FULIGO] PHYSARACEAE 85 



plasrnodiocarps 2 to 30 mm. long, pale yellow or ochraceous, 

 scaly or smooth ; outer sporangium-wall densely charged 

 with calcareous deposits, separating from the membranous 

 inner wall. Capillitium with abundant and rather large simple 

 or branching yellow lime-knots connected by a scanty network 

 of firm hyaline threads with broad membranous expansions. 

 Spores purple-brown, closely and minutely warted, 9 to 14 fx, 

 diam. — P. virescens Ditm. var. alpina Lister in Journ. Bot., 

 xlvi. 216 (1908). 



PI. 62. — d. sporangia (California) ; e. capillitium and spores, with fragment o: 

 sporangium-wall ; /. spore. 



This species was first gathered in the Blue Canon, California, by Dr. 

 Harkness (B.M. 2327), and was named in Phillips' herbarium Badhamia 

 inaurata (see Mycetozoa, ed. 1, p. 61). It has since been found near 

 Arolla, Switzerland, 8,000 feet altitude, and M. Ch. Meylan has 

 repeatedly gathered it in the Jura Mountains, near Ste. Croix, at an 

 elevation of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet, where it appeared on turf on the 

 mountain-side in the company of P. vernum after the thawing of the 

 winter snows. In general structure and in the colour of the spores 

 the present species is curiously like the alpine form of P. vernum, 

 though differing entirely in the yellow colour of the sporangia and 

 lime-knots. It appears to be related to P. contextum from which it 

 is distinguished by the yellow lime-knots and by the sporangia being 

 larger, more scattered, and usually forming plasmodio carps. 



Hab. On leaves, grass and sticks in alpine regions. — Ste. Croix, 

 Jura Mountains (B.M. 2328) ; California (B.M. 2327). 



The following species of Physarum are rejected from their 

 descriptions being too brief to be serviceable : — 



P. atrum Fr. P. flavomrens Alb. & Schw. 



P. chlorinum Cooke. P. hypnophilum Fr. 



P. connatum Schum. P. luteovalve Schwein. 



P. corrugatum Link. P. piceum Fr. 



P. crustiforme Speg. P. polyaedron Schwein. 



P. elegans Schwein. P. purpurascens Link. 



P. elongation Link. P. stipitatum Chev. 



P. fimetarium Schum. P. villosum Schum. 



The description of Tilmadoche cavipes Berk, from the 

 Andaman Isles (see Grev., xi. 39) — with brick-red sporangia, 

 cottony white stalks, and yellow spores — suggests that this 

 species should be excluded from the Mycetozoa. 



Genus 4.— FULIGO Haller Hist. Stirp. Helv., iii. 110 

 (1768). Sporangia elongated, branching and interwoven, 

 combined to form a pulvinate aethalium ; the outer layer of 

 sporangia often barren and forming a cortex charged with 

 deposits of lime-granules and without spores ; capillitium 

 with few or many lime-knots. 



