66 
ENDOSPOEBiE. 
[fulioo. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES OF FULIGO. 
^thalia and lime-knots yellow or variously coloured : — 
Spores nearly smooth, 7 to 10 /a diam. (1) F. aeptica 
Spores spinulose, 10 to 11 diam, (2) F. ochracea 
JEthaHa and lime-knots pure white. (3) F. ellipsospora 
1. F. septica Gmelin, Syst. Nat., p. 1466 (1791). Plasmodium 
yellow, ^thalia pulvinate, varying much in size, from 2 mm. to 
20 cm., broad, yellow, pinkish or dull white or reddish-brown. 
The sporangia constituting the jethalium are intricately coiled 
and anastomosing, 2 to 2 '5 mm. broad, with air spaces in the 
intervals which permeate the mass. The cortex is sometimes 
wanting, when the surface is grey and marked with brain-like 
convolutions. Sporangium-walls within the sethalium membran- 
ous, very fragile, colourless, with scattered deposits of lime-granules. 
Columella none. Capillitium very variable, a loose network of 
slender hyaline threads more or less expanded at the axils, with 
rounded, fusiform, or branching yellow or whitish lime-knots, 
varying much in size. Spores violet, almost smooth, 6 to 10 /a 
diam. — Blytt, Bidr. Norg., Sop. iii. (1892), p. 5. Mucor sejjticus 
Linn., Sp. PI., Ed. 2, p. 1656 (1763). Fuligo varians Somm., Fl. 
Lap., p. 239; Post., Mon., p. 134; Cooke, M}^. Brit., p. 23; 
Mass., Mon., p. 340; Macbride, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Iowa, ii., p. 160. 
jEthalium septicum Fr., Syst. Myc, iii., p. 93 ; Cooke, Handbook, 
No. 1101. Fhysarum gyrosum Post., Mon., p. 111. Physarum 
cerebrinum Mass., Mon., p. 306. Licea Lindheimeri Berk., in 
Grev., ii., p. 68. Tuhulina Lindheimeri Mass., Mon., p. 42. 
Plate XXIV., A. — a. a small part of an ecorticate sethalium, nearly 
resemijling the type of Physarum gyrosum Eost., x 20 ; J. capillitium with 
fragment of sporangium- wall and spores, x 280; c. spore, x 600 ( England) ; 
d. capilliiium and subBllipsoid spores from a corticate sethalium, x 280 
(Black Forest, Germany). 
Rostafinski's type specimen of Physarum gyrosum Rost. from Berlin 
in the Strassburg collection consists of minute pinkish sethalia of Fidigo 
septica 2 to 3 mm. broad, without superficial cortex. He quotes 
Betieularia muscorum Fr. (Syst. Myc, iii., p. 91), as a synonym for 
P. gyrosum ; it appears probable from Fries' description that his 
species was also a small ecorticate form of F. septica. In the type 
specimen of Licea Lindheimeri Berk, from Texas (K. 1648) only the 
basal part of an sethalium remains ; it is an orange form of Fuligo 
septica with scanty delicate capillitium and violet spores measuring 5 
to 7 /X. The type of Physarum cerebrinum Mass., produced in a hot- 
house at Kew (K. 195), is also a form of F. septica with no cortex 
developed over the convoluted sporangia ; it is found that if the rising 
Plasmodium is protected by a bell-glass from currents of dry air, the 
outer sporangia develop as well as the inner, and no cortex of barren 
sporangia is formed. 
Hah. On rotten wood, tan, etc. — Common. Leytonstone, Essex ; 
Lyme Regis, Dorset (L:B.M.40) ; Highgate (B. M. 155) ; Europe 
(B. M. 461, 463) ; South Africa (K. 2.32) ; Australia (B. M. 468); 
New Zealand (K. 201) ; N. America (B. M. 813). 
