MYCETOZOA IN EPPING FOREST 135
(Leers) Rostafinski appeared. All these species were recorded
in July before the drought commenced ; they are species that
develop on decaying wood. A large colony of Diachea leucopoda
(Bulliard) Rost. was found on leaves on September 23rd, this
being the first species to appear that had not been recorded
earlier in the year. It would seem that the species which appeared
first after the drought was broken were those of which the
continuous development had been arrested by the dry conditions.
Species that develop on leaves, particularly those often found
on holly leaves, were much more severely affected by the drought
than those maturing on decaying wood. Though Diderma
effusum (Schweinitz) Morgan and Didymium nigripes (Link) Fr.
matured in the third week of July, Diachea leucopoda in September
and Didymium difforme (Pers.) Duby in October, it was not
until January (1948) that fresh developments of Craterium
minutum (Leers) Fr., Didymium squamulosum (Albertini and
Schweinitz) Fr., D. Clavus (Alb. and Schw.) Rost., D. anellus
Morg., Lamproderma scintillans (Berkeley and Broome) Morg.,
L. violaceum (Fr.) Rost. and Physarum vernum Sommerfelt var.
iridescens G. Lister were found, followed in February by Badhamia
foliicola Lister, Physarum cinereum Pers., P. bitectum Lister,
Craterium leucocephalum Ditmar, Diderma spumarioides Fr. and
Perichaena vermicularis (Schw.) Rost.
It is noteworthy that while Didymium nigripes was reported
in July, D. squamulosum, which in my experience usually follows
soon after it, was not found until January, when it soon became
abundant. No fresh maturity of D. nigripes appeared after the
August-September drought, but weathered specimens were
frequent. The gathering of Physarum vernum made in January
was puzzling. Some sporangia were the greyish white lime
form and some were iridescent from absence of lime ; one
plasmodiocarp was partly grey-white and partly iridescent brown.
As the sporangia tested microscopically had the large granules
of the variety in the lime-knots I consider the gathering to be the
variety iridescens, which is the form usually found in Epping Forest.
During the Club's Fungus Foray, which was held on
October 12th, 1947, when drought again prevailed, 16 species
were reported, several being in a much weathered condition.
Ten of the species were found by searching logs and wood lying
in the bed of the brook which runs by Great Monk Wood to
Baldwin's Pond. The most notable record was a turbinate
form of Hemitrichia clavata (Pers.) Rost. with some gatherings
having somewhat short red stalks and showing red-brown strands
of plasmodium among the sporangia when dry. I had not seen
this form of the species before, and the species is not at all
common in the Forest.