282 A Monograph of the Myxogastres. 



last-named genus. Sometimes two or three sporangia are 

 seated on a common stem, forming a plasmodiocarp. 



Physarum scyphoides, Cke. and Balf. (fig. 231). 



Sporangia globose or broadly obovate, stipitate, upper portion 

 of wall whitish, rough with amorphous lumps of lime, basal 

 portion bright brown, persistent as a very shallow, irregular cup ; 

 stem almost equal to sporangium in length, bright brown, erect, 

 usually attenuated upwards, irregularly wrinkled and often 

 compressed and twisted, expanding at the base into a minute, 

 brown hypothallus; capillitium dense, knots of lime white or 

 yellowish, very numerous, large, irregularly branched, connected 

 by short, thin, colourless portions, becoming concentrated 

 towards the base to form a columella ; spore globose, pale lilac- 

 brown, minutely warted, 7 9 p diameter. 



Physarum scyphoides, Cke. and Balf., in Rav., Fung. Amer., 

 Exs., 480 (without description) ; Mass., Journ. Mycol., vol. v., 

 p. 18# t. 14, f. 7 (1889). 



On living leaves, grass, &c. Darien, Georgia ; (Rav., 2407). 

 (Type in Herb., Kew.) 



A very fine species, about 1 mm. high, scattered or gregarious ; 

 the upper portion of the sporangium is whitish, with sometimes 

 a suggestion of pink, falling away in patches when mature, and 

 leaving the small, thicker, basal portion in the form of an 

 irregular shallow cup or disc, which, with the character of the 

 capillitium, suggest a leaning towards the genus Craterium. 



Physarnm Reader!, Mass. (n. Bp.).fiuU 



Sporangium stipitate, spherico-depressed, plane or slightly 

 umbilicate below, greyish, covered with distinct but closely arranged 

 white, innate flakes of lime ; stem equal to or longer than the 

 sporangium, very thick, equal, brown, longitudinally rugulose, 

 expanding into a broad, dark-brown hypothallus, filled with 

 masses of lime and organic matter; capiUitium absent, but 

 when the sporangium is empty a brown spot is seen at the 

 base which corresponds to the apex of the stem; capillitium 



