PHYSARUM.] 
PHYSARACE.15. 
47 
of lime. Columolla none. Capillitium a loose irregular network 
of delicate hyaline threads, not expanded at the axils, with fusi- 
form or angled orange hme-knots. Spores violet-brown, almost 
smooth, 7 to 10 /A cVmrn—Steononites viridis Gmelin, Syst. Nat., ii., 
p. 1469 (1791). Physarum aureum Pers., in Rorner, N. Mag. 
Bot., p. 88. P. nutans, /3 viride, y aureum, 8 coccineum, Fr., 
Syst. Myc, iii., p. 129. Tihnadoche mutahilis Eost., Mon., p. 129, 
figs. 123-27, 132; Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 22; Mass., Mon., p. 329. 
Tilmadoche viridis Sacc, Syll., vii.. No. 1247 ; Macbride, in Bull. 
Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii. (1892), p. 152. 
a. luteum: sporangia yellow. — Sphcerocarjous luteus Bull., 
Champ., PI. ccccvii., fig. 2. 
(B. aurantiTim : sporangia orange. — Sphcerocarpus aurantius 
Bull., Champ., PI. cccclxxxiv., fig, 2. 
y. incanum : sporangia grey. 
Plate XII., A. — a. sporangia, x 20 ; h. capillitium, with fragment of 
sporangium-wall and spores, x 280 ; c. spore, x 600 (England). 
In this variable species, as in P. nutans^ the sporangium-wall is 
somewhat persistent when the lime is abundant ; when this is more 
scanty the wall soon breaks up in small fragments, remaining attached 
to the capillitium. The colour of the sporangia found on the same 
stump may differ from one year to another. The lime-knots are very 
variable both in size and colour ; pale yellow sporangia have often red- 
brown knots, and dark sporangia have light orange knots ; occasionally 
the sporangia are grey and the lime-knots pale yellow, approaching 
P. nutans. The stalks vary in tint in all forms. The specimens from 
Chili (Gay) in the Paris Museum, given by Eostafinski (Mon., App., 
p. 7) as a type of Physarum Leveillei, is the orange form of P. viride ; 
the stalks ate free from lime deposit, the capillitium consists of slender 
threads and fusiform orange lime-knots. 
Hab. On dead wood.— a. and /3. Leytonstone, Essex (L:B.M.23) 
France (Paris Herb.) ; Germany (B .M. 606) ; Borneo (L:B.M.23) ; 
New Jersey (L:B.M.25). /3. Poland (Strassb. Herb.) ; Ceylon (K. 1420) ; 
Bonin Islands (K. 335) ; Chili (Paris Herb.) . y. Bohemia (B. M. 503) ; 
Iowa (B. M. 806). 
15. P. Berkeley! Eost., Mon., p. 105, fig. 88 (1875). Plas- 
modium yellowish -green (teste Eavenel). Total height 1-75 mm. 
Sporangia subglobose, or flattened beneath, stipitate, nodding, 
0-4 to 0-5 mm. diam., grey and yellow at the base, yellow or 
iiidescent from the absence of lime ; sporangium-wall membranous, 
colourless above, thicker and yellowish below. Stalk slender, 
subulate, striate, without deposits of lime, red or copper coloured. 
Columella none. Capillitium a close netwox^k of delicate hyaline 
threads with numerous yellow flat expansions at the axils ; often 
persistent and retaining the form of tlie sporangium after dis- 
per.sion of the spores; lime-knots usually small, angular, yellow. 
Spores pale violet-brown, almost smooth, 7 to 9 /x dmm. — Physarum 
Jlavicomum Berk., in Hook. Journ. Bot., iv., 1845, p. 66. 
Pkysaricm mpripies Berk, k Eav., in Grev., ii., p. 65, 1873 ; 
Mass., Mon., p. 284. Didymium Jlavicomum Mass., Mon.' p. 242! 
