238 A Monograph of ttie Myxogastres. 



ing under the weight of the sporangium; columella absent; 

 mass of spores blackish-purple; capillitium copious, threads 

 colourless, 3 4 p thick, branching at wide angles and anasto- 

 mosing irregularly; spores globose, smooth, dingy lilac, 9 10 /* 

 diameter. 



Didymium australis, Mass., Grev., vol. xvii., p. 7. 

 (Type in Herb., Kew.) 



Gregarious, on an old decayed species of Auricularia. 



Brisbane, Australia. 



Plant about 2 mm. high, stem equal or a little longer than 

 sporangium. Resembling Didymium squamulosum, in the wall 

 of theNjroorangium breaking up into large detached patches, 

 but readily distinguished by the absence of a columella, and the 

 thin, coloured stem. 



Didymium proximum, B. and C. (figs. 227 229).V).^<\vips 



Sporangium globose, white or pallid, sprinkled with lime, 

 mostty in the form of stellate crystals ; stem more or less longi- 

 tudinally wrinkled, snibequal, rufous, erect, expanding at the 

 base into a small hypothallus; columella subclavate, whitish, 

 reaching one-third the height of the sporangium; capillitium 

 dense, threads colourless, sometimes rough with projecting 

 granules ; 3 4 mm. thick at the base, bifurcating and anasto- 

 mosing laterally to form an irregular reticulation, often dilated 

 and flattened at the axils; spores globose, pale dirty lilac, 

 smooth, 9 12 fx diameter. 



Didymium proximum, B. and C., Grev., vol. ii., p. 52 (1873) ; 

 Rost, Mon. App., p. 23 ; Sacc., Syll, no. 1308. 



Didymium pusillum, B. and C., Grev., ii., p. 53. 



On dead pine leaves and on herbaceous stems. Carolina. 

 (Types in Herb. Berk., nos. 10760 and 10764.) 



Scattered, 2 2'5 mm. high, columella large, usually more or 

 less clavate, sometimes irregularly fusiform. Owing to a slip 

 of the pen, Berkeley says, in describing D. pusillum, " columella 

 nulla," yet the large columella is shown in Berkeley's sketch, 

 and the type specimen is identical with that of D. proximum. 



