210 ENDOSPOREAE [TRICHIA 



4. T. persimilis Karst. in Not. Saellsk. pro Fauna et Mora 

 Fenn. Fork., ix. 353 (1868). Plasmodium watery-white. 

 Sporangia globose, usually crowded and seated on a common 

 membranous hypothallus, 0'5 to 0*8 mm. diam., brown 

 or yellow-brown, shining ; capillitium and spores in 

 mass yellow or yellow-brown ; sporangium-wall mem- 

 branous, yellow, marked with delicate " stippled " lines 

 or rows of minute warts. Capillitium of cylindrical 

 elaters 4 to 6 /x diam., marked with about four closely 

 set spiral bands, usually studded with numerous short 

 slender spines ; the ends of the elaters conical, acute, 

 or with the spiral bands produced at the apex into two or 

 three diverging points ; longitudinal striae inconspicuous. 

 Spores yellow, or yellow-brown, 11 to 14 /x diam., with the 

 reticulation broken, or represented by irregular pitted warts ; 

 border interrupted. — Macbr. N. Am. Slime-Moulds, 213, in 

 part. T. Jackii Rost. Mon., p. 258 (1875) ; Mass. Mon., 188. 

 T. proximella Karst. in Bidr. Kann. Finl. Nat., iv. 139 

 (1879) ; Mass. Mon., 180. Trichia abrupta Cooke in Ann. 

 Lye. Nat. Hist. N. York, xi. 404 (1877) ; Mass. Mon., 187. 

 Trichia Balfourii Mass. in Journ. R. Micr. Soc, 1889, 339 ; 

 Mass. Mon., 186. Trichia sulphurea Mass. in Journ. R. Micr. 

 Soc, 1889, 339 ; Mass. Mon., 186. 



PI. 160.— a. sporangia ; b. elater and spores ; (England). 



This abundant species is closely allied to both T. affinis and T. 

 scabra (q.v.). The capillitium, when matured under unfavourable 

 conditions, often shows great divergence from the usual typo. The 

 elaters in some cases are very short, measuring only 12 to 15 /a in 

 length ; in others they may be long, branched and combined to 

 form a Hemitrichia-like network. Dr. Karsten's type from Finland, 

 agrees essentially with the examples of T. Jackii Rost. in Strassb. 

 Herb. ; the latter name must therefore be dropped as being ante- 

 dated. The occurrence of the long spinous processes on the elaters, 

 noted in the original description of T. persimilis, is not a constant 

 character. A form with the ends of the elaters obtuse and the spiral 

 bands continued at the apex into widely diverging spines, has been 

 named T. abrupta Cooke, but this character is also found occasionally 

 in T. favoginea, T. affinis, and T. scabra. T. proximella Karsten and 

 T. sulphurea Mass. have elaters 4' 5 to 5 fx diam., and spores with the 

 bands much broken ; T. Balfourii Mass. has the elaters 4 to 5 ft diam., 

 and the reticulation on the spores consists of wide, broken and pitted 

 bands. They present no character by which they can be separated 

 from T. persimilis. 



Hob. On aead wood, leaves, etc. — Lyme Regis, Dorset (B.M. 1457) ; 

 Batheaston, Somerset (B.M. 367) ; Penzance (B.M. 370) ; Wanstead, 

 Essex (B.M. 1458) ; Birmingham (B.M. 1459) ; Boynton, Yorks 

 (B.M. 1125); Glamis, Scotland (B.M. 369); Germany (B.M. 2254); 

 France (K. 1183); Sweden (B.M. 2868); Finland (B.M. slide); 

 Switzerland (Zurich Herb.) ; Portugal (B.M. 2869) ; Ceylon (K. 1749) 

 Cape (K. 1047) ; Java (K. 1755) ; New Zealand (B.M. 2870) : Muskoka, 



