98 ENDOSPOREAE [LEOCARPUS 



lobes ; sporangium-wall single, membranous, with deposits of 

 included yellow lime-granules which are denser and of a deeper 

 yellow on the summit, somewhat stouter and more persistent 

 at the base where it is continued into the cartilaginous stalk. 

 Stalk cylindrical, 0-2 to 0-5 mm. long, stout, deeply furrowed, 

 nearly translucent, but charged with lime-granules, orange 

 or yellow, arising from a circular hypothallus. Columella 

 either absent or represented by a central mass of con- 

 fluent lime-knots. Capillitium of irregularly shaped yellow 

 lime-knots, varying much in size, connected by a network 

 of hyaline threads with triangular expansions at the axils 

 of the branches. Spores violet-brown, spinulose, 8 to 9 ft 

 diam.— Mass. Mon., 269 ; Macbr. N. Am. Slime-Moulds, 

 73. Trichia aurea Solium. Enum. PI. Saell., ii. 208 (1803). 

 Craterium mutabile Fr. Syst.Myc, iii. 154 (1829) {non Symb.), 

 Gast. ; Wallr. Fl. Crypt. Germ., ii. 357 ; Lister Mycetozoa, 73. 



PI. 67. — a. sporangia (Devon) ; b. capillitium and spores with fragment of 

 sporangium-wall; c. spore. 



This species holds an intermediate position between the genera 

 Physarum and Craterium ; it is retained somewhat doubtfully in the 

 present genus on account of the usually ovoid sporangia having the 

 wall cartilaginous at the base, and from its general resemblance to C. 

 leucocephalum. It is nearly allied to P. citrinelhim Peck, but differs in 

 the shape of the sporangia, in the orange-yellow stalks, and in the smaller 

 spores. A specimen gathered by Mr. W. G. Freeman, on leaves, at 

 Onitcha Olona, South Nigeria, in 1904 (B.M. 2372), is probably a form 

 of the present species, though in the structure of the stalk it shows 

 affinities with P. svlphureum ; the sulphur-yellow obovoid sporangia 

 tend to expand on maturity in a stellate manner, and have a columella 

 which in some cases is attached to the apex of the stalk, and in others 

 is free ; the spores measure 7 to 8 /x ; the stalks are nearly white, and 

 are brittle from dense deposits of enclosed white lime -granules. 



Hab. On dead leaves. — Lyme Regis, Dorset (B.M. 1280) ; Flitwick, 

 Beds (B.M. 1281a) ; Batheaston, Somerset (B.M. 133) ; North Wales 

 (B.M. 2368); Appin, Scotland (K. 299); near Paris (B.M. 2369); 

 Germany (Strassb. Herb.) ; Portugal (B.M. 2370) ; Ceylon (Peradeniva 

 Herb.); Japan (B.M. 2371); Ohio (B.M. 1282); South Carolina 

 (B.M. 888). 



Genus 10.— LEOCARPUS Link in Mag. Ges. Nat. Fr. 

 Berl., iii. 25 (1809). Sporangium-wall of two layers, the 

 outer cartilaginous, shining, with deposits of lime on the inner 

 side, the inner hyaline. Capillitium consisting of a network 

 of rigid hyaline threads, with branched anastomosing brownish 

 lime-knots. 



1. L. fra£ilis Rost. Mon., p. 132, fig. 93 (1875). Plas- 

 modium lemon-yellow. Sporangia clustered, obovoid or 

 globose, sessile or shortly stalked, 2 to 4 mm. long, yellowish- 

 brown, chestnut or purple-brown, shining as if varnished, 

 sometimes dehiscing in revolute floriform lobes ; the outer 



