32 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
living oak where it was noted over 25 years ago. Heavy rains
produced a moist and slimy condition on one side of this tree,
where there is some lichen growth, but neither moss nor
liverwort; here on November 8th there were about fifty sporangia
among wet gelatinous algal matter over a length of about
eighteen inches. These sporangia were immature and easily
visible. Subsequently, when they had become darker, they were
more difficult to distinguish, but immature ones again showed
the eye-like appearance.
On November 13th five species were found under a holly
bush at Hill Wood, High Beach, and one puzzling group of
sporangia was kindly examined by Miss G. Lister, who regards
it as an irregular form of Diachea leucopoda; it has very short
stalks and either oblong or subglobose sporangia, and a few
plasmodiocarps ; the dark capillitium with pale tips is denser
and more netlike than usual; the rather dull glossy walls are
what one usually sees in nearly perfect developments. Part
of a gathering of Craterium minutum picked up beneath the same
holly bush has the form of linked plasmodiocarps, but with
distinct evidence of the lids found in the ordinary goblet-shaped
form.
The species found on dates other than November 11th and
26th are :—
Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa (Mull.). Macbr. On fir wood near
the Warren.
Physarum vernum Somm. var. iridescens G. Lister. One
gathering on holly leaf.
P. bitectum Lister. A few sporangia and one plasmodiocarp
on the moss Eurhynchium praelongum from a fir log in the
Warren copse; plasmodiocarps on decayed beech leaves were
found at the same spot on a later date.
P. virescens Ditm. var. obscurum Lister. Three yellowish
immature sporangia on holly leaf; one matured.
Stemonitis ferruginea Ehrenb. One gathering on wood
among grass.
Comatricha typhoides (Bull.). Rost. One gathering only
of this usually frequent species was found on a log.
Lamproderma scintillans (Berk. & Br.). Morgan. On
holly leaves.