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LISTER ! THE HAUNTS OF THE MYCETOZOA. 
or amongst beds of Alpine Monkshood, another habitat for Myce- 
tozoa is met with. A number of species may be found not only 
outside the bases of the previous year’s flowering stems, but 
within the hollow stalks, where they feed and fruit protected 
from many dangers. On splitting open'the stalks, one usually 
sees them veined with tracks of plasmodium, and often may 
be rewarded by finding black clusters of the puzzling alpine 
species of Lamproderma, or Perichaena vermicularis, the alpine 
form of which has bright rosy plasmodium. I cannot hope to 
convey an adequate idea of the charm these hunting grounds 
possess, nor how refreshing it is, after the eye has been long 
and intently searching close to the ground, to look up and survey 
the general landscape, which often includes a vision of dazzling 
snow-peaks seen under the blue of a Swiss sky. Such associa¬ 
tions can never be forgotten. 
Heath and Moorland and Bog. —These habitats blend 
into each other, and have yielded hitherto but scanty harvests 
of Mycetozoa. Didymium melanospermum is sometimes abundant 
among heather. Diderma simplex has also been found about 
the bases of old heather and on peaty soil in Surrey, Wales, 
and Scotland ; the reddish-brown colour of the plasmodium 
and sporangia harmonises with the old brown heather leaves 
and renders the species inconspicuous. On open heaths, 
the debris of old gorse and broom thickets often repays examina¬ 
tion. About rough gorse hedges, in Co. Down, Mrs. Stelfox 
has been rewarded by finding small growths of many unexpected 
species, including Margarita metallica and Prototrichia metallica. 
Amongst whortleberry bushes and pine needles at Woburn 
Sands, Miss K. Higgins discovered the finest growth I have 
seen of Leptoderma iridescens. On beds of Reindeer-moss (Cladina 
rangiferina) growing on heaths, Listerella paradoxa has been 
obtained repeatedly in North Germany ; the sporangia look 
like specks of black soil scattered over the pale lichen stems, 
and may most easily escape detection. 
Moors and bogs are usually far from the haunts of men ; 
Mycetozoa fruiting there are easily washed away and have often 
little chance of being observed. 
On the moorland clothing the slopes of Aran Mawddwy, 
in North Wales, was found the first British gathering of Fuligo 
muscorum ; the bright apricot plasmodium had climbed up a 
