1897 ] OBSERVATIONS ON THE MYXOBACTERIACEZ 409 
Dung of sheep, pig, and other animals. Cambridge, Mass.; 
Kittery Point, Maine; Burbank, Tennessee. 
This striking form has made its appearance not infrequently on laboratory 
cultures and grows luxuriantly on nutrient agar, although it does not fructify 
on this substratum as readily as the sessile species. The form obtained on 
pig dung at Burbank, Tenn., was distinctly smaller in habit and milky white 
in color; but cultures of this variety on agar reverted to the ordinary pinkish 
form from which it can hardly be distinct. As already mentioned, the stalk 
is formed in the same way that the cystophores of Chondromyces are pro- 
duced, and is persistent after the spores have separated from it. 
Myxococcus cirrhosus, nov. sp. Plate XX XT, figs. 25-27. 
Color pale reddish or flesh colored. Spore mass more or 
less elongate, erect, the base slightly swollen, the distal portion 
tapering to a rounded apex. Spore irregularly spherical, about 
I in diameter. Rods 0.8 by 2-5 » or longer. Spore mass 50- 
100 # high, about 20 w in diameter at the base. 
On grouse dung from Readville, Mass. ; 
This form appeared on a laboratory culture and is so minute and incon- 
Spicuous from its pale color that it is seen with difficulty, the more so since 
the bases of the spore masses are usually more or less embedded in the sub- 
Stratum. The spores although somewhat loosely coherent at maturity do not 
form a deliquescent mass, so that the species is evidently allied to the section 
of the genus which includes J/. coralloides. 
Myxococcus cruentus, nov. sp. Plate XX XI, figs. 28-29. 
olor deep blood red. Cysts regularly spherical, surrounded 
bya more or less well defined rind or wall within which the spores 
are embedded ina scanty and amorphous matrix. Rods 0.8 by 
3-8. Spores oval or irregularly oblong, 0.9-1 by 1.2-1.4# 
Cysts 90-125 w in diameter. 
On cow dung, Burbank, Tennessee. 
This species was found in woods covering the substratum with a blood red 
‘Coating resembling some dark red Nectria. The cysts are densely aggregated, 
Temarkably uniform in shape and size, and are peculiar from the presence of 
Ho moderately well defined wall to which attention has been called above. 
sf ‘he spores are more than usually irregular in size and form, and are less well 
defined than in the other species, resembling in some respects the thickened 
which occur in the cysts of Chondromyces. — a si niuleee 
oO 
Camsrince, Mass. 
