physarella] physaraceae 9] 



Ceylon (B.M. 2344), has rather broad and nearly simple capillitium 

 threads with long fusiform lime-knots ; the spores are dark, spinulose, 

 and measure 17 /x diam. The specimen B.M. 2052 from the Philippine 

 Islands has slender branching capillitium, small lime-knots, and violet- 

 brown, minutely warted spores measuring 9 /x. The presant species 

 appears to be nearly allied to Physarum javanicum, but is distinguished 

 by the more saucer-shaped sporangia, the red colour of the stalks and 

 the darker usually larger spores. 



Hab. On dead leaves, wood, Auricularia, etc. — Montpellier, France 

 (B.M. 2345) ; Germany (B.M. 403) ; Sweden (B.M. 1317) ; Togo, 

 East Africa (B.M. 2343); Madagascar (B.M. 1001); Natal (K. 376); 

 Ceylon (B.M. 576) ; Java (B.M. 2346) ; Borneo (B.M. 2347) ; Sumatra 

 (B.M. 1315) ; Queensland (B.M. 1316) ; Philippine Islands (B.M. 

 2036) ; Tahiti (K. 1207a) ; Brazil (B.M. 2348). 



Genus 7.— PHYSARELLA Peck in Bull. Torr. Bot. 

 Club, xi. 61 (1882). Sporangia stalked, shortly cylindrical, 

 perforated from above by a deep umbilicus ; capillitium con- 

 sisting of slender threads with minute fusiform lime-knots, 

 and stout spine-like processes densely charged with lime- 

 granules, springing perpendicularly from the sporangium- wall. 



1. P. oblonga Morg. Myx. Miami Valley, 79 (1896). Plas- 

 modium rich yellow. Total height about 3 mm. Sporangia 

 gregarious, stalked, shortly cylindrical, inclined, 0-8 mm. long, 

 0*6 mm. broad, perforated from above by a deep umbilicus, 

 which is continuous with the hollow stem, greenish or reddish - 

 yellow ; in abnormal developments sporangia erect, funnel- 

 shaped or irregularly expanded, rarely sessile and forming net- 

 like plasmodiocarps ; sporangium-wall a yellow membrane 

 thickened with included deposits of yellow lime-granules and 

 studded with the spine-like processes of the capillitium, at 

 length dehiscing round the cylindrical apex of the sporangium 

 and recurving in stellate lobes from the wall of the umbilicus, 

 which persists to form a hollow orange-yellow columella. 

 Stalk cylindrical, slender, broader at the base, or thick and 

 irregular, striate, red-brown, translucent. Capillitium con- 

 sisting normally of abundant filiform forking pale yellow 

 threads, with few minute fusiform yellow lime-knots, and 

 yellow or orange spine-like processes 0*2 mm. long, 20 /*. thick, 

 extending from the outer wall of the sporangium to the walls 

 of the columella, densely charged with granules of lime ; 

 in plasmodiocarp forms the capillitium may consist of a net- 

 work of yellowish threads with large irregular orange lime 

 knots, and have no spine-like processes. Spores violet-brown, 

 nearly smooth, 6 to 8 /x diam. — Macbride N. Am. Slime 

 Moulds, 71. Trichamphora oblonga Berk. & Curt, in Grev., 

 ii. 66 (1873). Physarum rufibasis Berk. & Br. in Journ. Linn, 

 Soc, xiv. 85 (1873). P. Mans, Mass. Mon., 296 (1892). Chon- 

 drioderma inflatum Rost. Mon., p. 425 (1875). Tilmadoche 



