114 ENDOSPOREAE [DIDERMA 



high, sessile, seldom either shortly stalked or forming plas- 

 modiocarps, purplisli-brown or bright chocolate-brown, often 

 mottled with darker spots or marked with numerous somewhat 

 parallel darker lines radiating from near the apex to the base 

 of the sporangium ; sporangium-wall dehiscing in a stellate 

 manner into from eight to twenty reflexed lobes, snow-white 

 on the inner side, the outer layer brown, cartilaginous, with 

 abundant deposits of lime on the inner side, closely connected 

 with the membranous inner layer. Stalk stout, white, filled 

 with lime-granules, 0*2 mm. high. Columella hemispherical, 

 or subglobose and depressed, white or cream-coloured. 

 Capillitium of slender simple or anastomosing colourless 

 or purplish threads. Spores purple-brown, minutely warted, 

 10 to 12 /x diam. — Chondrioderma aster vides Lister in 

 Journ. Bot., xl. 209, tab. 438, fig. 1, a-c (1902) ; Torrend 

 Fl. Myx., 166. 



PI. 97. — a. sporangia (La Mortola, Italy) ; 6. capillitium and spores with frag- 

 ment of sporangium-wall ; c. spore. 



Closely allied to D. radiatum of which it is perhaps hardly more than 

 a marked variety with dark, sessile and usually rather conical spor- 

 angia. It has been obtained twice from the Italian Riviera ; Dr. 

 Torrend has gathered it repeatedly in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, 

 and Herr Jaap has found it near Hamburg. Gatherings made by 

 Dr. Sturgis on Cheyenne Mt., Colorado, differ from the type only in 

 the more globose less conical shape of the sporangia. 



Hab. On dead bark, pine needles, etc. — La Mortola, Italv 

 (B.M. 1971) ; Germany (B.M. 2437) ; Portugal (B.M. 2436) ; Colorado 

 (B.M. 2438). 



16. D. rugosum Macbr. N. Am. Slime-Moulds, 105 

 (1899). Plasmodium grey. Total height 0-7 to 1 mm. 

 Sporangia scattered, stalked, rarely sessile, subglobose or 

 hemispherical, 0*5 to 0*6 mm. diam., greyish-white, brown 

 at the base, reticulated with wrinkles " which divide the 

 wall into 25 to 30 irregularly polyhedral portions " ; sporan- 

 gium-wall single, papyraceous, with scanty deposits of lime 

 in minute granules. Stalk subulate, 0-2 to 0*6 mm. high, 

 furrowed, black. Columella clavate, about half the height of 

 the sporangium, rugose, chalky or yellowish- white. Capilli- 

 tium consisting of slender colourless or purplish threads, 

 anastomosing and branching towards the tips. Spores violet- 

 brown, minutely warted, 8 to 9 /x diam. — Chondrioderma 

 rugosum Rex in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1893, 369 ; Lister 

 Mycetozoa, 84 ; Petch in Ann. Perad., iv. 345. 



PI. 86. — a. sporangia (X. Carolina) ; b. capillitium and spores with fragment of 

 sporangium-wall ; c. spore. 



This species appears also to be allied to D. radiatum, as stated by Dr. 

 Rex, but is well distinguished by the wrinkled sporangia, the black 

 stalks, and the clavate shape of the white columellae. Since its first 



