trichamphora] physaraceae 89 



Hob. On dead leaves, straw, etc. — Beds (B.M. 1761); Italy (B.M. 

 1786); Ceylon (Peradeniya Herb.); Philippine Islands (B.M. 2040); 

 Japan (B.M. 2339) ; Iowa*(B.M. 810) ; Ohio (B.M. 1268) : var. eeorticata 

 —Berks (B.M. 1720) ; Epping Forest (B.M. 2337) ; Germany (B.M. 

 2338) ; Philadelphia (B.M. 2340) ; Kansas (B.M. 2341). 



Genus 5.— ERIONEMA Penzig in Myx. Buit., 36 (1898). 

 Sporangia forming long cylindrical simple or branched 

 plasmodiocarps ; capillitium a close elastic network of slender 

 colourless threads with few small lime-knots. 



1. E. aureum Penz. I.e., 37. Plasmodium colourless or 

 yellowish. Sporangia long, cylindrical, 0-2 to 0-3 mm. diam., 

 lemon-yellow, or greyish-olive spotted and banded with yellow, 

 either clustered and drooping on slender branched stalks, 

 or sessile and forming straight or curved branched and often 

 interlacing plasmodiocarps ; sporangium-wall a pale yellow 

 membrane, with more or less abundant deposits of yellow 

 lime-granules. Stalks yellow, filiform, merging into the 

 anastomosing strands of the hypothallus. Capillitium a close 

 persistent network of slender colourless threads with few small 

 fusiform yellow lime-knots ; at maturity the sporangium-wall 

 breaks away in flakes, and the cylindrical network of 

 capillitium expands longitudinally to several times its original 

 length. Spores pale brownish- violet, nearly smooth, 6 to 7 /x 

 diam. — Lister in Journ. Bot., xlii. 98, tab. 458 ; Petch in 

 Ann. Perad., iv. 341. 



PI. 73. — a. sporangia (Java) ; b. capillitium and spores ; c. spore. 



The present species is distinguished from Fuligo septica, some 

 ©corticate forms of which it resembles, by the remarkable elastic 

 capillitium. Erio.nema aureum was first found by Professor Penzig in 

 the botanic gardens of Buitenzorg, in November, 1896 ; since then 

 Professor Ernst has again met with it in the island of Java ; 

 Mr. Kusano has found it in the botanic gardens, Tokyo, Japan, and 

 Mr. Petch has twice gathered it in Ceylon. 



Hob. On dead twigs, leaves, etc. — Java (B.M. 1710) ; Japan 

 (B.M. 2342). 



Genus 6.— TRICHAMPHORA Junghuhn Fl. Crypt. Jav., 

 12 (1838). Sporangia discoid or saucer-shaped, stalked ; 

 stalk red-brown ; sporangium- wall membranous, with evenly 

 distributed deposits of lime-granules ; capihitium consisting 

 of colourless branching threads with many or few lime-knots, 

 or of membranous tubes, filled with lime throughout, or 

 without lime. 



Trichamphora is somewhat artificially separated from the unwieldy 

 genus Physarum, to which it is very closely allied, on account of the 

 remarkable saucer-like shape of the sporangia, and from the capillitium 

 being frequently without any deposits of lime. 



