88 ENDOSPOREAE [FULIGO 



dingy colour renders them when mature and dry extremely incon- 

 spicuous. When protected from currents of air, the sporangia form 

 less compact aethalia, and may in part remain free as simple or branched 

 plasmodiocarps. 



Hob. On sticks, rushes, bracken, etc., in moist places. — Epping 

 Forest, Essex (B.M. 2333) ; Beds (B.M. 2334) ; Surrey (B.M. 2335) ; 

 North Wales (B.M. 1765) ; Brandenburg (B.M. 2223) ; Sweden (Herb. 

 Dr. R. E. Fries); Switzerland (Zurich Herb.); Ceylon (Peradeniya 

 Herb.) ; Adirondack Mountains, New York (B.M. 1267) ; Maine 

 (B.M. 2336). 



3. F. cinerea Morg. Myx. Miami Valley, 105 (1896). 

 Plasmodium white. Aethalia pulvinate, elongate, simple 

 or branched, 4 to 60 mm. long, scattered or gregarious, formed 

 of closely interwoven sporangia, usually enclosed in a smooth 

 white cortex densely charged with lime and continuous with 

 the white hypothallus. Sporangium- walls within the aetha- 

 lium more or less perfect, membranous, with deposits of white 

 lime-granules. Capillitium consisting of simple or branched 

 hyaline threads, and large white lime-knots that may unite to 

 form a pseudo-columella, or almost Badhamia-\ike. Spores 

 brownish- violet, spinulose, ellipsoid, 13 to 17 X 8 to 12 ,u, or 

 subglobose, 9 to 12 p diam. — Enteridium cinereum Schwein. 

 in Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc, n.s. iv. 261(1832). Physarum 

 ellipsosporum Rost. Mon., App. p. 10 (1876) ; Mass. Mon., 310 ; 

 Macbr., N. Am. Slime-Moulds, 27. Badhamia coadnata Rost. 

 Mon., p. 146 (1875) ; Mass. I.e., 325. Aethaliopsis stercori- 

 formis Zopf Pilzthiere, 150, fig. 26 (1884). Fuligo 

 stercoriformis Racib. in Hedw., xxvi. Ill (1887) ; Mass. 

 I.e., 342. F. ellipsospora Lister Mycetozoa, 67 ; Petch in 

 Ann. Perad., iv. 342. 



Var. ecorticata Lister : aethalia composed of more loosely 

 combined sporangia, irregular in outline, without cortex, 

 white, buff, or pale reddish-brown ; spores often globose, 

 9 to 12 /x diam. 



P1 - 7 .?,-~ a - P art of an ecorticate aethalium (Beds) ; b. group of aethalia, on straw ; 

 c. capillitium and spores ; d. spore. 



The typical form of this widely distributed species has been found 

 in some years in great abundance about heaps of old straw in Bedford- 

 shire, but does not appear to be common in the British Isles. Mr. 

 Petch describes it as being fairly abundant in Ceylon. The var. 

 ecorticata occurs both on dead leaves and on wood ; it is not infrequent 

 in this country, and has also been obtained from Germany and from 

 both the eastern and western United States ; the spores are usually 

 rather paler L.nd smaller than in the typical form, between which and the 

 white variety of F. septica it holds an intermediate position. The type 

 of Badhamia coadnata Rost. from Cuba in the Strassburg herbarium 

 consists of smooth corticate aethalia of the present species. From the 

 description and illustration of Aethaliopsis stercoriformis Zopf there 

 can be no doubt that this also is Fuligo cinerea. 



