348 Transactions of the Society. 



Balfour, the elaters are mostly without ornamentation, but in Dr. 

 Cooke's copy, now in the Kew Herbarium, and also in the British 

 Museum copy, I find along with unornamented elaters, others present- 

 ing the markings described above. The variety differs in having 

 thicker elaters with a more evident and constant spiral. 



(Rostafinski's Synonyms.) 



Trichia nitens, Libert, non Pers. ! in Lib., Plant. Arden. CoUec, 

 fasc. iii. No. 277 (1834). 



Oligonema minutula, Mass., fig. 20. 



Sporangia scattered, rarely aggregated, sessile on a narrow base, 

 lemon-yellow, dull, mass of capillitium very scanty, elaters simple, 

 short, cylindrical, 5-6 fM thick, rugulose, and with a very open indis- 

 tinct spiral, tips obtuse, rounded ; spores globose, with slightly raised, 

 flattened bands forming a networh of numerous almost regular and 

 equal-sized polygons, 12-14 /j, diameter. 



Type in Herb. Berk., Kew, n. 10,902, marked " Trichia minu- 

 tula, b.E. et Montag., Algiers." 



On wood. Algiers ! 



Belated to 0. nitens, but known by the scattered, dull sporangia, 

 and the very few short elaters having thick rugulose walls with an 

 indistinct spiral. In rare instances a swollen portion 15-20 /j, long 

 and 8-12 fi thick is present near the middle of an elater, but there is 

 no indication of the narrow, ring-like thickenings as in 0. nitens. 

 From 7-9 complete polygons present on a hemisphere of a spore. 



Alwisia, B. and Br. 



Sporangia fasciculate on a common stem, wall single, dehiscing 

 irregularly; capillitium scanty, elaters attached to the wall at the 

 base of the sporangium, tips free, abrupt or attenuated and occasionally 

 bifid, walls thin, spirals and spinules rudimentary ; spores globose. 



B. and Br., Journ. Linn. Soc, xiv. p. 87, t. 2, f. 6, and xv. 

 t. 2, f.L 



Trichia, Eost., Mon., p. 246 (in part) ; Sacc, Syll., vii. pt. i., 

 n. 1494 (in part). 



In the generic diagnosis given by Berkeley and Broome, the spo- 

 rangia are described as subcoriaceous, but examination of the type 

 specimens shows this to be only when the specimens are not quite 

 mature, when, as in most Myxogastres, they become more or less 

 cartilaginous on drying. The cavity of the sporangium is continuous 

 with the hollow stem. The present genus is most nearly allied to 

 Prototrichia, with which it agrees in having the elaters attached to 

 the base of the sporangium, and the tips free ; but in Alwisia the 

 markings on the walls of the elaters are rudimentary, and the habit is 

 very difierent. The fasciculate form is the only one at present 



