OLIGONEMA.] 
TRICHIACE^. 
173 
Ilab. On dead wood and leaves. Common.— Orton, Leicester (B. M. 
391) : Lyme Regis, Dorset (L:B.M.142) ; Leigh, Somerset (B. M. 399); 
Glamis, Scotland (B. M. SSf)) ; Germany (B. M. 759) ; Poland (Strassb. 
Herb.) ; Finland (K. 1090) ; Switzerland (B. M. 760) ; Italy (B. M. 
758) ; Ceylon (B. M. 762) ; Australia (K. 1082) ; Tasmania (K. 1759) : 
New Zealand (K. 1098) ; Philadelphia (L:B.M.142) ; Mass., U.S.A. 
(L:B.M.142) ; Chili (K. 1761). 
SPECIES EXCLUDED FROM THE GENUS. 
T. Kickxii Rest. = Oligonema nitens Rest. 
T. pusilla Schroet. = Oligonema nitens Rest. 
T. nana Mass. = Hemitrichia Wigandii Lister. 
Genus 34.— OLIGONEMA Rostafinski, Men., p. 291 (1875). 
Sporangia minute, densely clustered ; capillitium scanty, of short 
or long threads, with spiral markings indistinct or wanting ; 
spores reticulated. 
1. 0. nitens Rost., I.e., f. 198 (1875). Plasmodium? Sporangia 
^subglobose, sessile, heaped together in clusters, 0 3 to 0'4 mm. 
diam., shining, yellow or olivaceous-yellow ; sporangium-wall 
membranous, yellow. Capillitium of short or long, cylindrical, 
yellow elaters, 3 to 5 /«, diam., with rounded or abruptly pointed 
ends, marked with one to four irregular indistinct spiral bands, 
which are sometimes wanting, occasionally with ring-shaped 
thickenings and scattered spines, or spinulose. Spores yellow, 
reticulated with narrow, rarely with broad and pitted bands, 
11 to 16 /A diam. ; border 0*5 to 1*5 /a wide. — Cooke, Myx. Brit., 
fig. 198; Mass., Mon., p. 170. Trichia nitens Libert (non Pers.), 
PI. Cryp. Ard., Fasc. iii., No. 227 (1834). Gornuvia nitens Rost., 
Versuch, p. 15 (1873). Trichia Bavarica de Thuemen, Myc. 
Univ., No. 1497. Oligonema Bavaricum Balf. & Berl., Sacc. 
Syll., vii., p. 437. Perichcena flavida Peck, in Rep. N. York 
Mus., xxvi., p. 76. Oligonema flavidiom Mass., Mon., p. 171. 
Oligonema hrevifilum Peck, in Rep. N. York Mus., xxxi., p. 42 ; 
Mass., Mon., p. 173. Oligonema minutulum Mass., in Journ. R. 
Micr. Soc. (1889), p. 348_; Mass., Mon., p. 171. Physarum Schwei- 
nitzii Berk., in Grev., ii., p. 66; Mass., Mon., p. 311. Trichia 
Kickxii Rost., Mon., App., p. 40. Trichia pusilla Schroet., Krypt. 
FI. Schles., iii., p. 114. 
Plate LXI., A.—d. sporangia, x 20 ; e. elaters, x 600 ; /. spore, x 600 
(Ardennes : Libert's type). 
This species varies in the markings on the elaters and the reticula- 
tion of the spores ; few gatherings are exactly similar, and great 
variety is often seen in a single sporangium ; the length of the elaters 
in some specimens is only about 50 fj., while in others the average is 
from five to seven times as long. A gathering from South Carolina in 
Eavenel's collection (B. M. 960, 961) shows some sporangia with capil- 
htium forming a network with few free ends as in Hemitrichia, while 
others have more or less branched and free elaters. 0. nitens is allied 
to T richia affmis and T. persimilis, in which species similar variations 
in spores and elaters are sometimes found in sporangia which have 
