242 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Physarum nutans Pers. Both the typical form with nodding
sporangia on slender stalks, and the subspecies leucophaeum with nearly
sessile sporangia were obtained on dead logs.
Physarum viride Pers. A single gathering of immature golden-yellow
sporangia was made on dead wood.
Fuligo septica Gmelin Only a single weathered aethalium was found
of this common species, which in summer time is the most abundant and
conspicuous of the Forest Mycetozoa.
Craterium leucocephalum Ditmar. Two gatherings were made on dead
oak and hornbeam leaves.
Didymium squamulosum Fries. Both young and old sporangia were
found in abundance on old horse dung in the Birch Hall meadows.
Colloderma oculatum (Lipp) G. Lister. Obtained in some quantity
on moss, hepatics, and lichen on the trunks of oak and hornbeam. On one
living tree it was found extending up the trunk for a distance of eight
feet. Owing to recent rains, the outer mucilaginous investment of the
sporangia was swollen and shining, otherwise this inconspicuous species
might easily have been overlooked. If the mossy bark on which speci-
mens have appeared is kept moist under a bell jar (allowing ventilation
to prevent the growth of mould), it is found that fresh sporangia, varying
in colour from dirty white to sulphur yellow, continue to emerge from
the wood. At an early stage the pale mass of spores lies in the centre of
a cushion of mucilage. As the sporangium matures, the darkening spore-
mass sometimes rises up through the mucilage and comes out on to the
surface, when the iridescent sporangium-wall soon breaks into fragments,
and the spores are dispersed. If, as frequently happens, the mucilaginous
envelope dries, enclosing the sporangium, the walls of the latter break
either irregularly or by a well-defined lid.
Since the Rev. M. Cran called our attention to this species two years
ago, by his Aberdeenshire gatherings, it has been found in many places,
including New England and Japan. This year we have it from two new
localities, viz., Shrawley Wood, Worcestershire, and Arosa in S.E.
Switzerland ; indeed Colloderma now appears to be a fairly common species.
Stemonitis fusca Roth. Several gatherings were made on dead wood.
5. ferruginea Ehrenb. Three small tufts of sporangia were found on dead
wood and bark, the longer stalks and pinker colour of the spores dis-
tinguish this species in the field from S. flavogenita.
S. flavogenita Jahn. Found in a mature condition, and in translucent
yellow plasmodium on sticks.
Comatricha nigra Schroeter. Abundant on logs and fallen branches.
Enerthenema papillatum Rost. On a dead oak bough.
Lycogala epidendrum Fries is a summer species. Only one group
of weathered aethalia was found.
Trichia varia Pers. Abundant on stumps of oak and hornbeam.
T. botrytis Pers. Found on the mossy trunk of a living hornbeam,
in company with Colloderma.
Arcyria incarnata Pers. Frequent on fallen oak boughs.
A. denudata Pers. On old stumps.
A. cinerea Pers. One gathering only of this usually abundant species
was found. Mr. J. Ross tells that he has seen A. cinerea far less frequently