MYCOLOGICAL NOTES 
C. G. LLOYD 
Page 1039 
TRAMETES RUGOSO-PICTA PROM REV. L. MILLS, ECUADOR 
(Fig. 1907): Pileus thin, rigid, from a-reduced base. Surface rugu- 
lose, appressed fibrillose, marked with large, fuliginous spots 
behind, the margin pale. Context pale. Pores minute, slightly 
alutaceous. Qystidia none. Spores not found. The pla.nt suggests 
Trametes cingulata and we would class it in the same section (127 ) 
although it does not have the smooth, glabrous surface of all others 
of this section. We do not know another species that suggests it. 
NOTES ON THE MYXOMYCETES 
I presume every mycologist at some stage gets a Myxomycetes 
craze. Thus far I have escaped it but the larger species reach me so 
frequently that I have had to study them a little. One does not work 
with fungi long until he learns what Myxomycetes are, and we presume 
every one who reads this article will know. In their earlier stages 
all have an amorphous mass known as a piasmodium. It is without cells 
or definite form and creeps or rather flows over logs or other objects 
until it gets ready to take its fruiting form. Any one who hunts the 
old logs will notice these plasmodia, soft, mucilaginous, moving, 
bodies and will be attracted to them. The power to move is not the 
usual property of a plant, hence there have been learned discussions 
as to whether Myxomycetes are plants or animals. The fungus men have 
always claimed them for in the mature state they have every analogy to 
fungi, but few have written on them without a long apology or rather 
explanation as to why a. fungus man should consider as a. plant an 
organism that has the power in its earlier stage of moving about. 
Most- of them are quite small but generally occur in such numbers that 
they are noticeable on the old logs, dried leaves, and other habitats 
where they are found. They are "beautiful microscopic objects. I 
well remember my first visit to Prof. Morgan, how he opened my eyes 
to a new world when he showed me a Stemonitis under the microscope. 
I gained the impression that Morgan was the first man to find them, 
but I presume that was wrong, as I have since learned they have been 
hunting them, illustrating them, and naming them for more than two 
hundred years; principally naming them, I think, for roughly speaking 
there are about two hundred species and a.thousand names. About 
fifty years ago Rostafinskiego, (called Rost, for short) wrote an 
elaborate account, the first chapter entitled "Rzut oka na doty-- 
chczasowe prace nad sluzowcami. " It does not explain much to me, but 
Ccoke, with the aid of his Polish hired girl it is said, gave an 
English translation (in part) and Lister and Macbride judging from 
the fluent extracts they quote read it as if it -were English. "Rost." 
looked up all the old names and arranged them chronologically (we can 
read that much of him) but we are inclined to agree with Massee in 
effect that the only part of his arrangement that has much probability 
of truth is the sequence of dates. In one or two instances where we 
have looked up Rost's synonymy it is absolutely impossible, as "Mucor 
serpula Scop.1772." It is typical of established methods in "science" 
which would be more correctly known as pedantry, or some similar term. 
We do not object to calling the plant Hemitrichia Serpula for 
that is the customary and I presume the proper classification. But 
I do not approve of calling it "Hemitrichia Serpula (Scop. ) Rost." 
for Scopoli's figure seems to be a racine and has no more suggestion 
