250 ENDOSPOREAE [PERICHAENA 



tiat creeping plasmodiocarps dehiscing by a lid ; capillitium forming 

 a dense web of nearly simple closely warred threads, 03 to 1"5 jx diam., 

 connected with the sporangium-wall by many slender attachments ; 

 spores brownish-yellow, minutely warted, 7 to 8*5 ll diam.— Tn some 

 respects this description applies to a form of P. depressa with very 

 slender capillitium ; on the other hand, if the capillitium threads were 

 not tubular but solid, the species might possibly be referred to the 

 genus Dianema. 



Hab. On dead wood and bark, rarely on leaves. — Epping Forest, 

 Essex (B.M. 1523) ; Lyme Regis, Dorset (B.M. 1524) ; Hitchin, Herts 

 (B.M. 3122) ; Yorks (B.M. 3123) ; Salop (B.M. 3124) ; Glamis, Scot- 

 land (B.M. 323); Ireland (B.M. 3125) ; Germany (B.M. 688); Belgium 

 (B.M. 690) ; Poland (Strassb. Herb.) ; Italy (B.M. 689) ; Portugal 

 (B.M. 3129) ; Portuguese East Africa (B.M. 3126) ; Madagascar (Herb. 

 Dr. Jahn) ; Ceylon (Peradeniya Herb.) ; Queensland (K. 153) ; Japan 

 (B.M. 3127); Colorado (B.M. 3128); Ohio (B.M. 1.525); Philadelphia 

 (B.M. 1526) ; South Carolina (B.M. 697) ; Antigua (B.M. 1690). 



3. P. corticalis Rost. Mon., p. 293 (1875). Plasmodium 

 watery-grey. Sporangia crowded or scattered, sub-globose, 

 often depressed, ellipsoid, or forming bolster- shaped plas- 

 modiocarps, sessile on a broad or narrow base, rarely sub- 

 stipitate, 0-5 to 1 mm. diam., dark purple or purplish-brown, 

 nut-brown, grey or white, dehiscing irregularly or along definite 

 lines, and then either horizontally with a convex lid or in 

 broad sinuous lobes ; sporangium-wall of two layers, the outer 

 cartilaginous, yellowish-brown, charged with brown granular 

 matter, often intermixed with acicular or angular calcareous 

 deposits which may form a pruinose or crystalline covering in 

 the grey and white sporangia ; inner layer membranous, usually 

 closely combined with the outer. Capillitium often scanty 

 or almost wanting, consisting of slender, long or short, branched 

 or simple, weak yellow threads, 1-5 to 4 //. diam., irregularly 

 compressed, angled and constricted, minutely warted, or 

 marked with short spines and prominences, rarely smooth, either 

 attached to the sporangium- wall or free. Spores yellow, 

 minutely and closely warted, 11 to 14 ^diam. — Mass. Mon., 

 115 ; Macbr. N. Am. Slime-Moulds, 185. Lycoperdon corticale 

 Batsch Elench. Fung., 155 (1783). Sphaerocarpus sessilis 

 Bull. Champ., 132, t. 417, fig. 5 (1791). Trichia fusco-aba 

 Sibth. Fl. Oxon., 407 (1794). T. gymnosperma Pers. Obs. 

 Myc, i. 83, t. vi, figs. 1, 2 (1796). T. circumscissa Schrad. 

 Nov. PL Gen., 19 (1797). Licca circumscissa Pers. Syn. 

 Fung., 196 (1801). L. quercina Wallr. Fl. Crypt. Germ., 344 

 (1833) ? Physarum luteo-album Schum. Enum. PI. Saell., ii. 

 199 (1803). Pericliaena populina Fr. Symb. Gast., 12 

 (1817); Lister Mycetozoa, 198. P. quercina Fr. I.e. V P. 

 abietina Fr. I.e., 11. P. marginata Schwein. in Trans. Amer. 

 Phil. Soc, n.s. iv. 258 (1832). P. vaporarla Schwein. I.e. 2 



