206 
ENDOSPORE/??. 
[PROTOTRICHIA. 
Genus 42.— PROTOTRICHIA Rostafinski, Mon., App., p. 38, 
1876. Sporangia normally sessile, globose ; capillitium of fasci- 
culate threads, penicillate and slender above, marked Avith spiral 
thickenings, attached above and below to the sporangium-wall. 
1. P. flagellifera Rost., Mon., App., p. 38 (1876). Plasmodium 
white, in larch and fir plantations. Sporangia subglobose, sessile 
on a broad base, rarely stalked, crowded, or scattered, 0-5 to 1 mm. 
diam., brown or pinkish-brown, shining or iridescent ; .sporangium- 
wall a substantial pale pinkish-brown or glaucous, smooth, tran.s- 
lucent membrane, sprinkled on the inner side with the slender 
persistent ends of the broken capillitium threads. Stalk, when 
present, cylindrical, Q-l to 0-4 mm. long, 0-05 mm. thick, solid, 
brown. Capillitium of numerous red- or olive-brown stout strands, 
rising from the base of the sporangium, marked with spiral 
thickenings, branching repeatedly above in a pencil of more 
slender threads attached at their extremities to the sporangium- 
wall. Spores pale pinkish-brown, minutely warted, 10 to 11 
diam. — Cooke, Myx. Brit., p. 65 ; Mass., Mon., p. 127. Trichia 
flagdlifer Berk. & Br., in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser, 3, xviii., p. 56. 
Trichia metallica Berk., in Hooker's Bot. Antarct. Voyage, Part 
iii., vol. ii. (1860), p. 268. Prototrichia metallica Mass, in Journ. 
R. Micr. Soc. (1889), p. 350; Mass., Mon., p. 127. Prototrichia 
elegantula Rest., Mon., App., p. 39 ; Blytt, Bidr. K. Norg., Sop. 
iii. (1892), p. 12. Prototrichia cuprea Mass., in Jour. R. Micr. 
Soc. (1889), p. 351 ; Mass., Mon., p. 129. Prototrichia chamceleon- 
tina Mass., Mon., p. 130. 
Plate LXXIII., B. — a. sporangia, x 20; h. part of a strand of capillitium, 
and spores, x 280 ; o. part of the base of a sporangiiTin, showing the attach- 
ments of the strands of capillitium, x 280 ; d. capillitium and spore, x 600 
(England). 
P. flagellifera occurs abundantly in the neighbourhood of Lyme 
Regis, in a larch plantation, where it has been gathered for several 
years, in the autumn and winter, on dead brambles and sticks. It is 
a species that is subject to considerable variation from changes of 
temperature and weather. In the most perfect development the 
strands of the capillitium are deep red-brown, sharply marked with 
regular and close spiral bands, springing erect, but with intertwining 
branches as far as the upper third, where they divide into a brush of 
more slender straight threads, and the spores are pale pinkish- brown, 
distinctly warted. Where the development has been checked by cold 
or dry weather, the threads are pale olive, with irregular or lax branches 
and indistinct spiral markings ; or the spiral character may be wantiug, 
replaced by broad or narrow rings. Associated with this form the 
spores are paler and more yellow, and faintly warted or nearly smooth. 
In cultivations, when the plasmodium has been shaken in conveying 
it from the wood, the capillitium forms very irregularly, sometimes 
anastomosing with broad and flat expansions with no appearance of 
spirals. Similar specimens have been received from Mr. Camm, Smeth- 
wick, in spring gatherings after cold weather : this is the form described 
under the name of Prototrichia chamoileontina Mass. ; it is entirely 
different from Cornuvia metallica Rost., which is given as a synonym 
by that author. The gathering from Badminton (K. 1740, B. M. 333), 
