lister: the haunts of the mycetozoa. 
313 
clump of rushes and was conspicuous for yards away ; after being 
carefully collected and kept moist, it matured in a few days into 
small clay-coloured nodules, characteristic of the ripe aethalia, 
which might very easily have been overlooked on the open 
hillside. This species has since been found in abundance 
in the Forest, near Theydon, and elsewhere, in England. In 
bogs, Badhamia lilacina has not unfrequently been obtained 
in its plasmodium stage, concentrating in sulphur-yellow masses 
on the surface of Sphagnum to form sporangia, which, when 
mature, contract into inconspicuous pinkish clusters matching 
in colour with the leaves of the bog moss. In the same situation 
may be found Lepidoderma tigrinum, whose scaly sporangia, 
grey when mature, develop from orange plasmodium, which 
may readily catch the eye. I happened once to notice a group 
of the immature orange sporangia on Sphagnum high on a bare 
shoulder of Croagh Patrick, in Co. Mayo—a situation too 
bleak and exposed (I should have thought previously) to favour 
the growth of any Mycetozoa. 
Mossy Rocks in Mountain Valleys. —As an example of 
such a habitat, I will take a narrow ravine I am familiar with 
in North Wales, where a mountain torrent leaps in a series of 
cascades from the moorland above to join the river Dovey below. 
The steep rocky banks are fringed and overhung with thin 
growths of oak and mountain ash, and are clothed with a wealth 
of ferns, mosses, and liverworts. It is the northward-facing 
aspect of this valley that has proved, especially in autumn, 
to be such a rich hunting-ground for Mycetozoa. Here, the 
wet rocks are sometimes conspicuously veined with the yellow 
plasmodium of Badhamia rubiginosa var. globosa, whose dark 
sporangia when immature may easily be mistaken for those 
of Lamproderma columbmum, a species equally abundant on 
these wet mossy banks. Diderma ochraceum is a rare species, 
which abounds here in wet seasons, encircling the stems of 
liverworts with its horse-shoe and ring-shaped sporangia. The 
gem of all the Mycetozoa found in that ravine is Diderma 
lucidum, whose bright orange-red sporangia, scattered in the 
dim green recesses of beds of Dicrannm, gleam out almost like 
tiny lamps There is no satisfactory record of this beautiful 
species having been found outside Wales. 
Rare Earth, —Few instances have yet been recorded of 
