MARGARITA.] MARGARITACE^. 203 
Capillitium of fasciculate threads, penicillate and slender above, 
marked with spiral thickenings, attached above and below to 
the sporangiui-wall. (42) Peototrichia. 
Fig. 50. — PrototrioMa Jiagellifem Boat. 
a. Group of sporangia. Magnified 4 times. 
1). Capillitium attached above to a fragment of 
the sporangium- wall, and a spore. Mag- 
nified 280 times. 
Fig. 50. 
Genns 40.— MARGARITA Lister, gen. nov. Sporangia globose; 
capillitinm a profuse web of coiled hair-like, sparingly-branched, 
slender, solid threads, with indistinct attachments to the 
sporangium- wall . 
1. M. metallica Lister. Plasmodium watery -white, among 
dead leaves and rotten wood. Sporangia globose, sessile on a 
narrow base, 0-5 to 1 mm. diam., solitary or gregarious, pearl- 
grey or copper-coloured, shining, iridescent ; sporangium-wall 
single, somewhat tough, glaucous or yellowish, translucent. 
Capillitium a profuse web of very long, even, solid, grey or 
yellowish threads, 0'5 to 1 /x diam., increasing in some parts to 
2 /A, scarcely branching, with few attachments to the sporangium- 
wall or apparently free. Spores pale yellow or nearly colourless, 
minutely warted, 10 to 11 /x diam. — Physarum metallicum Berk. 
& Br., in Mag. Zool. and Bot., i., p. 49 (1838). Cornuvia metallica 
Rost., Mon., App., p. '35; Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 76. Ferichcena 
plasmodiocarpa Blytt, Bidr. K. Norg., Sop. iii. (1892), p. 10. 
Plate LXXIIL, A. — a. sporangia, x 20 ; b. capillitium, showing the 
bulbous end of a delicate thread adhering to a portion of the sporangium- 
wall, and spores, x. 280 ; c. capillitium and spore, x 600 (England). 
The capillitium is usually papillose on one side of the waved thread. 
The spores vary in roughness from being distinctly warted to nearly 
smooth. In gatherings from Lyme Regis, Dorset, and Wanstead, 
Essex, the sporangia are scattered or crowded, pearly grey or iridescent 
bronze ; those in Broome's collection, British Museum, are more or less 
coppery. In specimens submitted by Prof. Blytt, of Christiania, they 
are subglobose, and crowded with broad bases on a common hypothallus ; 
the colour is bright copper, resembling some of Broome's specimens ; 
the capillitium and spores are similar to those in the English gatherings. 
This species has been removed from the genus Cornuvia on account of 
the remote connection it holds with C. Scrpula, which at present may 
be considered the sole representative of that genus. The name Mar- 
gnrita is given to the genus on account of the pearl-like appearance of 
the sporangia. 
Hah. On dead leaves, sticks, etc.— Batheaston, Somerset (B. M. 94 
95, 98, 272) ; Wanstead, Essex (L:B.M.167) ; Lyme Regis, Dorset 
(L:B.M.167) ; Bu-mingham (L:B.M.167) ; Norway (L:B.M.167). 
