110 THE NORTH AMERICAN SLIME-MOULDS 



Not uncommon in wet places. New York, Ohio, Iowa, South 

 Dakota, Louisiana, Nicaragua; reported also from Ceylon, Java, etc. 



Not the least remarkable feature of this remarkable species is the 

 variation in the form of the fruit or sporangia. We have specimens 

 from Louisiana (Rev. Langlois) which show no trace of columella, 

 the whole structure involute and plicate, short stipitate, recalling the 

 extremest complexity of such a species as P. polycepholum. Fid. PL 

 XVL, Fig. 6. Moreover, in these specimens the calcareous deposits 

 are white and not yellow, giving the entire fructification a grayish 

 aspect. Yet there is no doubt we have here simply an exaggerated ab- 

 normality of the species; the spores are identical in size, color, and 

 surface. Plasmodium bright yellow. Dr. Peck gave to his forms the 

 name Physarella mirabilis; but specimens sent by Michener of Penn- 

 sylvania, and by Berkeley and Curtis described as Trichamphora 

 oblonga {Grev., II., p. 66), are the same thing. N. A. F., 1212. 



Physarella lusitanica Torrend is a globose form depressed above or 

 betimes discoidal, occurring on Eucalyptus trees in Portugal. P. ob- 

 longa is so variable in form that it sometimes suggests a different 

 genus. Forms of it have been mistaken for Fuligo gyrosa R., etc. 

 Professor Torrend would include here Physarum javanicum (Rac), 

 i. e. Tilmadoche javanica as Raciborski saw it! We may not too 

 often reflect that genera are purely artificial things set up for our 

 convenience; but surely Physarella as a natural genus is distinct 

 enough to all. 



Cienkowskia Rost. 



1873. Cienkoivskia RosL, Versuch, p. 9. 



Fructification plasmodiocarpous, irregularly dehiscent, the wall a 

 thin cartilaginous membrane destitute of lime, except the capillitial 

 attachments within ; capillitium scanty but rigid, and characterized 

 everywhere by peculiar hook-like branchlets, free and sharp-pointed, 

 the spores as in Physarum, etc. 



The genus contains, so far, but a single species : — 



