108 ENPOSPOREAE [DIDERMA 



brownish-violet, minutely warted, 8 to 10 ^ diam. — Chon- 

 drioderma simplex Schroet. in Colin Krypt. Fl. Schles., iii. pt. 1, 

 123 (1885) ; Lister in Journ. Bot., xxxix. 85, t. 419, fig. 1 a-d. 



PI. 88. — a. sporangia (Scotland) ; b. capillitium and spores with portions of the 

 upper sporangium-wall and of the base of the sporangium ; c. spore ; d. sporangia 

 (Philadelphia). 



This species occurs among moss and heath on exposed moorland, and 

 is also found among dead leaves. The colour of the sporangia varies 

 much in different gatherings. A specimen collected on Bartlett 

 Mountain, New Hampshire, by Professor Thaxter (B.M. 2415) resembles 

 D. simplex in general structure, but differs in the bright lemon-yellow 

 colour of the sporangia, many but not all of which have a well- 

 developed yellow hemispherical columella ; the capillitium threads 

 show no expansions with lime-granules. If this beautiful form should 

 prove constant it would deserve specific rank ; for the present it is 

 retained with D. simplex, to which it seems most nearly allied. 



Hab. On heather and moss, or on dead leaves. — Aberdeen (B.M. 

 1762); North Wales (B.M. 1551); near Berlin (B.M. 2412); New 

 Jersey (B.M. 2413) ; Philadelphia (B.M. 2414) ; South Chili (B.M. 3194). 



Subgenus 2. — Leangittm : sporangia stalked or sessile ; 

 sporangium-wall often dehiscing in revolute lobes from the 

 globose mass of spores, and consisting of two closely con- 

 nected layers, the outer layer cartilaginous, more or less 

 charged with included lime-granules, the inner membranous. 



9. D. Sauteri Macbr. N. Am. Slime - Moulds, 103 

 (1899). Plasmodium opaque white (fide Torrend). Sporangia 

 sessile, somewhat aggregated, subglobose, depressed, 0-7 to 

 1 mm. diam., smooth, pale pinkish- or brownish-red ; 

 sporangium-wall of two layers, the outer cartilaginous, thin, 

 brittle, somewhat glossy, charged with innate lime-granules, 

 separating from the membranous inner layer. Columella 

 hardly evident, a rugose thickening of the brownish-red base 

 of the sporangium. Capillitium consisting of rather scanty, 

 sparingly branched colourless or pale violet threads, 2 to 4 ^ 

 broad, persistent at the base. Spores dark violet-brown, 

 spinulose, 10 to 16 /x diam. — Chondrioderma Sauteri Rost. 

 Mon., p. 181 (1875) ; Mass. Mon., 217 ; Lister Mycetozoa, 

 83 ; Torrend Fl. Myx., 166. C. aculeatum Rex in Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Phil., 1891, 390. 



PI. 95. — a. sporangia (Portugal) ; 6. sporangia (Salzburg, Tyrol) ; c. spores and 

 capillitium, with fragments of upper sporangium -wall and columella ; d. spore. 



The specimen in the Strassburg collection originally named " Diderma 

 deplanatum, ex. Herb. Sauter, ad muscos in montibus Salz.," seems 

 to be Rostafuvki's type of the present species ; it is well described 

 by him as "of coffee -and-milk colour, the outer wall brittle, 

 separating from the inner, which is membranous and colourless." 

 The species described by Dr. Rex as Chondrioderma aculeatum (B.M. 

 slide) is identical in all its characters with D. Sauteri. A specimen 

 in Greville's coll. in the Edinburgh Herb, marked " Diderma ? Appin. 



