NEW BRITISH FUNGI. 
117 
three to four, rarely spinnlose, with distinct broad interspaces. 
Spores globose with a thickened border, which is broad and per- 
forated, branched so as to form an irregular network ('01--012 or 
012-014 mm. diatn.). Rostajinski Monog., p. 258. Cooke , ^tyxo- 
mycetes , fig. 242. 
On rotten wood. Hassock’s Gate, Oct., 1854 (Herb. F. 
Currey). 
Trichia heterotricha, Balf. fil. 
Sporangia sessile in clusters, dark yellow, wall thick, tough and 
leathery, inner layer areolate ; elaters few, cylindrical *0071 mm. 
diam. (thickenings excluded) with walls of medium thickness, ir- 
regularly and variously thickened either with spines often twice 
diameter of elater, or with short prickles or warts, or with complete 
or half-rings, or sometimes with interrupted and irregular spirals 
leaving large intervening unthickened portions, swollen towards the 
extremities, and ending in a tapered rarely smooth arcuate or 
twisted point, in length twice the diameter of elater, tube *0035 mm. 
diam. terminating in the swelling of elater, or sometimes continued 
to the apex ; spores globose 'OIGO-’OITS mm. diam. with a very 
thick smooth membrane. 
In Herb. Currey. No locality. On bark. 
A species resembling most nearly forms of Tr. varia , Pers., but 
the few elaters with the very varying sculpturing and the larger 
smooth spores sufficiently separate them. 
Professor Bayley Balfour has also furnished the following notes 
on British Myxomycetes : — 
Trichia affinis , de Bary, was first published as a MS. name 
without description, by Fuckel (“ Symb. Myc.,” 336). Austria 
is given as its locality, and T. chrysosperma , DC. (“ FI. Franc.,” 
ii., 250 pr. p.) is quoted as a synonym, and No. 1432 FI. Rh., is 
mentioned as identical. Rostafinski, in his Classical “ Mono- 
graph ” (255), describes the species, giving as additional habitats 
Maryampol, Salem, Constance and Freiburg. He points out that 
the difference between this and the nearly allied form he describes 
as T. chrysosperma , a species which he attributes to Bulliard, and 
records as common in Europe, and occurring in Carolina and Chili. 
So far as general habit goes, there is but little character distin- 
guishing these species. Both have aggregated sporangia, sessile, 
and of a coloration varying in like direction in each. In some 
typically grown specimens of Tr. chrysosperma , the sporangia are 
pyriform with narrow base. I have never seen this in Tr. affinis , 
the sporangia of which are usually quite sessile on a broad rest. 
Practically it is not possible to diagnose the species by external 
characters, and the differences between them lie mainly in the 
sculpturing and size of the elaters and spores. In Tr. chrysos- 
perma the elaters are wider than in Tr. affinis , and have a series of 
thickened veins on the wall running parallel with the apex of the 
elater, and connecting the coils of the spirals. These are wanting 
