206 ENDOSPOBE^. [PROTOTRICHIA. 



Genus 42.— PROTOTRICHIA Eostafinski, Mon., App,, p. 38, 

 1876. Sporangia normally sessile, globose ; capUlitium of fasci- 

 culate threads, penicillate and slender above, marked with spiral 

 thickenings, attached above and below to the sporangium-wall. 



1. P. flagellifera Eost., Mon., App., p. 38 (1876). Plasmodium 

 white, in larch and fir plantations. Sporangia subglobose, sessile 

 on a broad base, rarely stalked, crowded, or scattered, 0'5 to 1 mm. 

 diam., brown or pinkish- brown, shining or iridescent ; sporangium- 

 wall a substantial pale pinkish-brown or glaucous, smooth, trans- 

 lucent membrane, sprinkled on the inner side with the slender 

 persistent ends of the b;roken capUlitium threads. Stalk, when 

 present, cylindrical, O'l to 0'4 mm. long, 0'05 mm. thick,, solid, 

 brown. Capillitium of numerous red- or oUve-brown stout strands, 

 rising from the base of the sporangium, marked with spiral 

 thickenings, braaching repeatedly above in a pencil of more 

 slender threads attached at their extremities to the sporangitim- 

 wall. Spores pale pinkish-brown, minutely warted', 10 to 11 fj, 

 diam. — Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 65 ; Mass., Mon., p. 127. Trichia 

 Jlagellifer Berk. & Br., in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 3, xviii., p. 56. 

 Trichia metallica Berk., ia Hooker's Bot. Antarct. Voyage, Part 

 iii., vol. ii. (1860), p. 268. Prototrichia metallica Mass. in Journ. 

 K Micr. Soc. (1889), p. 350; Mass., Mon., p. 127. Prototrichia 

 elegantula Rost., Mon., App., p. 39 ; Blytt, Bidr. K. Norg., Sop. 

 iii. (1892), p. 12. Prototrichia cuprea Mass., in Jour. E,. Micr. 

 Soc. (1889), p. 351 ; Mass., Mon., p. 129. Prototrichia chamcdeon- 

 tina Mass., Mon., p. 130. 



Plate LXXIII., B. — a. sporangia, x 20 ; 6. part of a strand of capillitium, 

 and spores, x 280 ; o. part of the base of a sporangium, showing the attach- 

 ments of the strands of capillitium, x 280 ; d. capillitium and spore, x 600 

 (England). 



P. flagellifera occurs abundantly in the neighbourhood of Lyme 

 Regis, in a larch plantation, where it has been gathered for several 

 years, in the autumn and winter, on dead brambles and sticks. It is 

 a species that is subject to considerable variation from changes of 

 temperature and weather. In the most perfect development the 

 strands of the capillitium are deep red-brown, sharply marked with 

 regular and close spiral bands, springing erect, but with intertwining 

 branches as far as the upper third, where they divide into a brush of 

 more slender straight threads, and the spores are pale pinkish-brown, 

 distinctly warted. Where the development has been checked by cold 

 or dry weather, the threads are pale olive, with irregular or lax branches 

 and indistinct spiral markings ; or the spiral character may be waiiting, 

 replaced by broad or narrow rings. Associated with this form the 

 spores are paler and more yellow, and faintly warted or nearly smooth. 

 In cultivations, when the Plasmodium has been shaken in conveying 

 it from the wood, the capillitium forms very irregularly, sometimes 

 anastomosing with broad and flat expansions with no appearance of 

 spirals. Similar specimens have been received from Mr. Camm, Smeth- 

 wick, in spring gatherings after cold weather : this is the form described 

 under the name of Prototrichia chanuBleontina Mass. ; it is entirely 

 different from Comuvia metallica Rost., which is given as a synonym 

 by that author. The gathering from Badminton (K. 1740, B. M. 333), 



