338 A Jlonor/raph of the Myxogastres. 



lime ; columella absent ; spores free from the first, or originating 

 in clusters. 



Leocarpus, Host., Mon., p. 132; Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 23; 

 Sacc, Syll, vii., 1, p. 358; Zopf, p. 148. 



The one species included in the present genus is characterized 

 by the smooth, polished sporangial wall, and by the hetero- 

 geneous structure of the capillitiura, most of the swollen nodes 

 containing air, wliile a few of the largest are filled with granules 

 of lime as in the genus Fhysarum. Some years ago I met with 

 a batch of Leocarpus fragilis having the spores arranged in 

 clusters as in some species of Badhamia, and the following note 

 by Mr. A. Lister, attached to the present species in the Kew 

 Herbarium shows that this condition, although not constant, 

 is not altogether abnormal, and what is of more interest, tends 

 to show that aggregation of the spores in clusters is not of 

 specific value. " In some sporangia the aggregation of the 

 spores is as marked as in any Badhamia hyalina, while in others 

 there is no such appearance at all." 



.Distrib. Europe; United States; Tasmania. Species 1. 



Leocarpus fragilis, Rost. (figs. 187 — 189). 



Sporangia obovate, with a more or less elongated, slender, 

 weak stem, or sub-globose and nearly or quite sessile, vary in 

 colour from bright chestnut to ochraceous, very smooth, shining ; 

 hypothallus well developed, capillitium dense, some of the nodes 

 empty, others filled with colomxd granules of lime ; spores globose, 

 either free from the first or in clusters, dingy purple, sometimes 

 with a brown tinge, 11 — 15 \x diameter, mimttely warted. 



Leocarpus fragilis, Rost., Mon., p. 132, f, 93; Cooke, Myx. 

 Brit., p. 23, f. 93; Sacc, Syll., vii., 1, n. 1242; Zopf, p. 148. 



Exsicc.—^l. A. Libert. PI. Crypt. Ard., Fasc. I., n. 76 ; Syd., 

 Myc. March., 1297; Flor., Exs. Austro-Hung., 1854; Karst., 

 Fung. Fenn., 377 ; Fuckel, Fung. Rhen., 1465 ; Rab.-Klotzsch, 

 Herb. Myc, 37; Ellis, N. Amer. Fung., 1123; Rav., Fung. 

 Car., 78. 



On twigs, grass, moss, &c. Britain (Helston, Cornwall ; New 



