MYCETOZOA OBSERVED IN EPPING FOREST. 127
beds of dead leaves of oak, hornbeam and holly that looked so promising
a hunting ground, and which in suitable weather are so prolific in the
species that feed among dead leaves, were not sufficiently soaked with
moisture and proved singularly barren. Of the twenty species we ob-
tained, only four were found among dead leaves.
The following is the list of our gatherings :—
Badhamia utricularis Berk. : on woody fungi or prostrate logs.
Physarum nutans Pers. : abundant on stumps.
P. viride Pers. : on an oak log.
P. sinuosum Weinm. (syn. P. bivalve Pers) : on dead brambles.
Craterium minutum Fries (syn. C. pedunculatum Trentip) : on holly
leaves.
Stemonitis fusca Roth. : on dead wood.
Comatricha nigra Schroeter (syn. C. obtusata Preuss) : abundant on
dead sticks and boughs.
C. pulchella Rost. (syn. C. persoonii Rost.) : on dead leaves and grass
stalks.
Lamproderma scintillans Lister (syn. L. irideum Mass.) : on dead holly
leaves ; only a few sporangia found.
Enesthenema papillatum Rost. (syn. E. elegans Bowman) : on a horn-
beam log ; this species is one that we usually find during the late autumn
and winter months.
Trichia affinis De Bary : on dead wood.
T. persimilis Karstin : on dead wood.
X. decipiens Macbr. (syn. T. fallax Pers.) : on logs ; both the white
and rosy forms of the young sporangia were seen, as well as the brown
mature condition.
T. botrytis Pers. : abundant on fallen boughs.
T. varia Pers. : on dead wood.
Arcyria ferruginea Sauter : on a prostrate log.
A. incarnata Pers. : on decayed oak boughs.
A. denudata Sheldon (syn. A. punicea Pers.) : on moss and dead wood.
A. nutans Grev. (syn. A. flava Pers.) : on a prostrate log.
Colloderma oculatum G. Lister : among moss and liverworts on the
trunk of a living oak, several feet from the ground. It is only within
the last year that this species has been recorded for the British Isles ;
it may therefore be of some value to give a brief description of its ap-
pearance, and an account of its distribution as far as we know it up to the
present time. The mature sporangia are usually rather glossy and of a
dark olive-brown colour ; they are globose or sausage-shaped, and vary
from 0.3 to 3mm. in length. As regards minute structure we see that
outside the membranous wall that encloses the spores and capillitium,
is a more or less completely investing mucilaginous coat, which again
is clothed with a layer of olivaceous granules and refuse matter thrown
out from the plasmodium. In wet weather this remarkable mucilaginous
coat swells up and one sees through its translucent substance the dark
compact mass of spores, looking rather like a little eye, to which character
the species owes its specific name oculatum. When the mucilaginous
coat covers the lower part only of the membranous wall, the upper part of
the latter is exposed and shines with iridescent colours.