50 
ENDOSPORBiE. 
[PHYSARUM. 
parent, with innate scattered clusters of pale yellow or yellowish- 
grey lime-granules; rupturing when mature into from two to 
four segments. Stalk erect or^curved, 0'5 to 2 mm. high, slender, 
subulate, translucent, dull red or golden red. Columella formed 
by a continuation of the stalk, penetrating the sporangium to about 
four-fifths its height, slender, scarcely tapering to the wedge- 
shaped end, reddish-yellow. Capillitium a close network of hyaline 
threads with triangular expansions at the axils of the branches, 
arising from the whole length of the columella, persistent after 
the dispersion of the spores ; lime-knots scattered, small, rounded, 
yellow. Spores pale brownish-violet, delicately spinulose, 5 to 6-5 
IX diam. 
Plate XIV., A.— a. sporangia, tUipsoid form, x 20 ; J. sporangia, globose 
form, X 20; c. apex of stalk bearing the columella and capillitium, x 100; 
d. capillitium and spores, x 280 ; e. spore, x 600 (United States). 
An immature specimen of this species occurs in the Strassburg 
collection named by Rostafinski " Graterium le^icocephalum unreifj" 
It agrees in all respects with the American type of P. jienctrale, and 
is interesting as being apparently the only European gathering. 
Hah. On dead wood and moss. — Germany (Strassb. Herb.) ; Phila- 
delphia (L:B.M.27) 
19. P. nutans Pers., in Usteri, Ann. Bot., xv., p. 6 (1795). Plas- 
modium watei-y white or yellowish-grey from the presence of foreign 
matter. Total height 1 to 1"5 mm. Sporangia subglobose, more 
or less flattened or concave beneath, 0'4 to 1 mm. broad ; white, 
greyish-white, or violet-grey ; gregarious, stipitate, sessile, or plas- 
modiocarps ; sporangium- wall membranous, with innate minute 
white granules in more or less dense clusters. Stalk subulate, 
longitudinally wrinkled, cernuous or erect, yellowish, olivaceous 
or dark, translucent above, sometimes opaque and white from 
deposits of lime in the wall, the tube of the stalk containing 
refuse matter but not lime (never with chalk-white fracture at 
the base as in P. leucopus). Columella none. Capillitium of 
colourless threads, either slender, forked and anastomosing with few 
flat expansions at the axils and few small white lime-knots, or with 
broad, often perforated expansions and large lime-knots. Spores 
clear violet-brown, nearly smooth or minutely spinulose, 8 to 11 
fx. diam.— Pers., Syn., p. 171 ; Fr., Syst. Myc, iii.,p. 128. Tihna- 
doche nutans Pvost., Mon., p. 127 ; Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 21 ; 
Mass., Mon., p. 327. Physarum Uucophoium, Fr., Sym. Cast., 
p. 24 (1818) ; Post., Mon., p. 113, figs. 77, 78, 89 ; Cooke, Myx. 
Brit., p. 15; Mass., Mon., p. 288. Physarum gracikntum Fi'., 
Syst. Myc, iii., p. 133 (1829). Tilmadoche gracilenta Post., Mon., 
p. 129 ; Mass., Mon., p. 330. Physarum granulatum Balf., in 
Grev., vol. X. (1882), p. 115; Mass., Mon., p. 289. Physarum 
Readeri Mass., Mon., p. 282. 
An extremely variable species ; the stalked and plasmodiocarp forms 
may develop from the same growth of plasmodium. Sporangia may be 
found with delicate capilUtiiim and few minute lime-knots, associated 
with others from the same plasmodium with wide expansions at the 
