228 LISTER : THE STUDY OF MYCETOZOA IN BRITAIN. 
almost throughout the year in mild weather, most abundant 
from July to October ; the var. confluens Lister, a form in 
which the sporangia unite in a confluent mass with columellae 
either branched and anastomosing or absent, has been found 
several times, in the Forest and Wanstead Park ; the var. rufes- 
cens Lister is as abundant as the typical form. 
S. splendens Rost. var. flaccida Lister.—Not unfrequent 
on dead wood in summer ; the rich purplish-red colour of the 
freshly formed sporangia fades to dull purple brown after 
j * ■ * 
they have been kept some years. 
S. confluens Cooke and Ellis.—Found once on a birch stump, 
during one of the Club’s Fungus Forays, near High Beach in 
October 1904. This species is closely allied to the preceding, 
differing in the confluent sporangia and the larger darker spores. 
S. herbatica Peck.—Not uncommon, occurring on old 
stumps in August and September. The var. confluens Lister, 
a curious form having the sporangia combined into a convolute 
mass with rather persistent walls, was found in July 1894, on a 
heap of dead leaves and sticks near Woodford. The only 
other gatherings that I know of are from far distant places, 
viz. frcm Connecticut, Java, Ceylon and South Nigeria. 
S. flavogenita Jahn.—Abundant on stumps, sticks, grass 
•etc., throughout the summer and early autumn : the yellow 
plasm odium has the habit of creeping away from the wood 
where it has fed to form, sporangia on surrounding herbage. 
S. ferruginea Ehrenb.—Not uncommon on prostrate 
logs and stumps from May to early autumn. The sporangia 
vary much in size in different growths ; specimens from High 
Beach have attained the height of 20 mm. ; in var. Smithii, 
Lister, which has been found near Walthamstow, the sporangia 
are 4 to 6 mm. high. 
Comatricha nigra (Pers.) Schroeter.—Very abundant on 
sticks and dead wood throughout the year if the weather is 
moist and mild ; var. alta Lister, a tall form with a loose tangle 
of capillitium attached mainly to the base of the long columella, 
has occurred in the Leytonstone forest on logs in November 
and March. 
C. elegans (Racib.) Lister.—The only Essex record is a small 
gathering made by Mr. Ross in the Lower Forest, north of Epping, 
in the summer of 1913. 
