256 ENDOSPOREAE [MARGARITA 



Genus 46.— MARGARITA Lister Mycetozoa, 203 (1894). 

 Sporangia sessile ; sporangium-wall translucent ; capillitium 

 a profuse coil of hair-like nearly simple solid threads, with 

 indistinct attachments to the sporangium-wall. 



The name Margarita is given to the present genus on account of 

 the pearl-like appearance of the sporangia. 



1. M. metallica Lister I.e. Plasmodium watery-white. 

 Sporangia solitary or clustered, globose, sessile on a narrow 

 base, 0-5 to 1 mm. diam., sometimes forming straight or curved 

 plasmodiocarps, pearl-grey or copper-coloured, sliining, iri- 

 descent ; sporangium-wall membranous, single, glaucous or 

 yellowish, translucent. Capillitium a profuse coil of very 

 long elastic flexuose solid grey or yellowish threads, 0*5 to 

 1 fju diam., increasing in some parts to 2 /x, scarcely branching, 

 with few attachments to the sporangium-wall or almost free, 

 marked with a very lax spiral band of minute spinules. Spores 

 in mass pale pinkish-grey, becoming yellowish-buff in age, 

 when magnified nearly colourless, minutely warted, 10 to 13 fx. 

 diam. — Meylan in Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sci. Nat., xlvi. 56. 

 31. pictoviana Moore in Proc. Nova Scotia Inst. Sci., xii. 96 

 (1910)? Physarum metallicum Berk. & Br. in Mag. Zool. 

 Bot., i. 49 (1838). Cornuvia metallica Rost. Mon., App. p. 35. 

 Perichaena plasrnodiocarpa Blytt in Bidr. K. Norg., Sop. iii. 

 10 (1892). 



PI. 196. — a. two forms of sporangia on wood ; b. sporangium on leaf ; c. capillitium 

 with fragment of sporangium-wall and spores ; d. capillitium and spore ; (England). 



The sporangia formed on leaves are usually solitary and spherical ; 

 those on wood are often clustered, and either subglobose or in the form 

 of short or elongated plasmodiocarps. The beautiful pearly- or pinkish- 

 grey of the freshly gathered spores fades to dull ochraceous-yellow after 

 the specimen has been kept for some time in the herbarium. If developed 

 under unfavourable conditions, the capillitium often consists in part of 

 stout irregular branching threads showing numerous attachments to 

 the sporangium-wall ; the sporangia then bear considerable resemblance 

 to cold-weather forms of Prototrichia metallica, to which the present 

 species is undoubtedly allied. 



In Rostafinski's Monograph, and in the first edition of the present 

 work, Licea incarnate, Alb. & Schw. Consp. Fung., 109 (1805) (syn. 

 Perichaena incarnate Fr. Syst. Myc, iii. 193) is placed as a synonym 

 for Lachnobolus congestus ; the description given by Albertini and 

 Scheintz, however, of the flesh-coloured iridescent sporangia, hemi- 

 spherical, ova'., "sub-linear" or flexuose in shape, and with extremely 

 fragile sporangium-walls, applies better to some forms of the present 

 species ; but in the absence of the type this determination must 

 remain conjectural. 



I lab. On dead leaves, especially on those of holly, and dead wood^ — 

 Batheaston, Somerset (B.M. 95); Lyme Regis (B.M. 1533); Salisbury 



