PHYSARUM.] ENDOSPOEE^. 61 
red or reddish -brown. Sporangium-wall membranous, with dense 
innate clusters of orange lime-granules. Columella none. Gapil- 
Htium a network of hyaline threads with frequent triangular 
membranous expansions at the axils of the branches ; lime-knots 
angular, branching, often confluent, orange-red or orange-brown. 
Spores pale violet-brown, spinulose, 8 to 11 /a diam.— Rost., Mon., 
pf 104 ; List., in Journ. Bot. 1891, p. 259, PI. 308, fig. 2 ; Mass., 
Mon., p. 302 ; Blytt, Bidr. Norg., Sop. iii., p. 4. 
Plate XXIII., K.—a. sporangia, x 20 ; 5. capillitium and spores, x 280 ; 
c. spore, X 600 (Germany : Rostafinski's type). 
B —a. sporangia, x 20 ; J. capillitium, with fragment of sporangium-wail 
and' spores, x 280; c. spore, x 600 (S. Carolina : Cooke's type oi P. auri- 
scal2nu»0- 
The specimen sent by Mr. Wiugate to Mr. Massee under the name 
Leocarpus sqnamulosus (L:B.M.38) so closely resembles P. ruUginosum 
that it appears to be an American form of that species ; it agrees with 
the Strassburg type in the capillitium and spores, and differs only in 
the more glossy sporangia, which are brown in colour instead of deep 
red. Two other specimens are difficult to locate. One from Dr. 
Harkness, Blue Canon, California (L:B.M.38), named in Phillips's coll. 
Badhamia inaurata, has subglobose sporangia 1 to 1*3 mm. diam. ; the 
sporangium- wall is scaly, and pale yellow with a faint reddish tinge ; 
the capillitium is a network of hyaline threads, with abundant large, 
branching, pale yellow hme-knots ; the spores measure 8 to 10 )u, diam. 
The other from Aiken, S. Carolina, named in Ravenel's collection 
Cienkowskia reticulata (B. M. 991), is a deep orange branching plasmodio- 
carp ; capillitium a network of hyaline threads, with large, branching, 
pale yellow lime-knots ; spores 7 to 9 /x diam. This specimen has a 
strong external resemblance to Cienkoioskia reticulata, but it has not 
the rigid yellow hyaline capillitium threads with hooked branchlets and 
the flat lime-plates of that species. . Should further gatherings confirm 
the characters of these two specimens they might deserve specific rank, 
but at present they are retained under P. rubiginosum, to which, not- 
withstanding the pale colour of the lime-knots, they appear to be most 
nearly allied. 
The specimen B. M. 863 is part of the type of Physarum auriscalpium 
Cooke ; another part is in the Kew Herb. It is numbered 1854 in 
Ravenel's collection from the Santee Canal, South Carolina, and was 
described in Myx. U.S.A., Ann. Lyc. N. H. New York, vol. xi. (1877), 
p. 384. It presents the following characters : — Sporangia sessile, or 
with an almost obsolete stalk ; subglobose depressed, gregarious, orange 
red ; sporangium-wall of two layers, the outer densely charged with 
orange lime-granules and separating in scales from the membranous 
grey inner layer ; columella none ; capillitium of large, branching 
orange lime-knots, with few connecting hyaline threads. Spores dull 
violet brown, minutely warted, 10 to 12 /x diam. The specimen repre- 
sents a single gathering, and the point in which it differs chiefly from 
Physarum rubifjiMosum Fries is the Badhamia-like capillitium, but 
judging from Dr. Cooke's description it would appear that in the 
sporangia examined by him the hyaline threads were sufficiently 
developed to include the species in the genus Physarum ; in other 
respects there are no characters by which it can be defined as distinct 
from P. ruhiqinosum, and, provisionally at least, it appears better to 
place it as a form of the latter species. 
