PHY S A RUM 59 



bose or sub-depressed; peridium double, thick, smooth or polished, 

 yellow brown, stellately dehiscent, the segments reflexed, white with- 

 in; columella none; capillitium dense, with nodes numerous, large 

 irregular, internodes thin and short; spores globose, lilac, minutely 

 warted, 6-7 fi. 



This form was first described in Grevillea, V., p. 114, as Diderma 

 brunneolum Phillips. Later, students of the specimens preserved by 

 Mr. Phillips, concur that we have to do not with a diderma, but with 

 a craterium, Lister, or physarum, Massee. There seems no reason 

 why we should not respect the decision of Massee, whose descrip- 

 tion is here quoted in form somewhat abridged. The peridium 

 is about as double as in the many physarums, not more so ; the inner 

 membrane so delicate as only occasionally to be revealed except to 

 scrutiny most searching. But the appearance as a whole is as of 

 some brown diderma; only the calcareous capillitium abides to pre- 

 vent mistaken reference. 



When opened by irregular dehiscence from above, the persisting 

 cup-like base of the sporangium recalls Leocarpus fragilis; but then 

 again the capillitium is different. 



California, Portugal ; Colorado, — Sturgis. 



13. Physarum cinereum (Batsch) Pers. 



Plate IX., Figs. 4, 4 a, 4 Z'. 



1786. Lycoperdon cinereum Batsch, Blench. Fung., p. 249, Fig. 169. 



1801. Physarum griseum Link, Diss., I, p. 27. 



1805. Physarum cinereum Persoon, Synopsis, p. 170. 



1829. Didymium cinereum Batsch, Fries, Syst. Myc, III., p. 126. 



1829. Physarum plumbeum Fries, Syst. Myc, III., p. 142. 



1875. Physarum cinereum Batsch, Rost., Mon., p. 102, in part. 



1896. Physarum plurnbeum Fr., Morgan, Myx. Mi. Val., p. 98. 



1899. Physarum plumbeum Fr., Macbr., N. A. S., p. 35. 



1909. Physarum cinereum (Batsch) Pers., Torrend, Flore des Myx., p. 183. 



Plasmodium watery white, or transparent, wide streaming on 

 decaying sod, etc. Sporangia sessile, closely gregarious, or even 

 heaped, sub-globose, elongate or plasmodiocarpous, more or less cal- 

 careous, gray ; peridium simple, thin, more or less densely coated with 

 lime; capillitium strongly developed, the nodes more or less richly 



