20
THE MYCETOZOA :
decaying masses, are peeled apart, on almost every one may be
seen the flat white sporangia of Didymium dubium, a species
considered rare elsewhere, but perhaps often overlooked.
I think the most prolific " leaf " habitat which I have visited
was a swampy wood of ash, poplar, and alder in Bedfordshire,
to which we were led by Mr. James Saunders. This wood
was supposed locally to have been the original " Slough of
Despond " of John Bunyan, but we thought it better des-
cribed, from our point of view, as "a land flowing with
milk and honey." I remember that, when we first pushed our
way in through the thicket of reeds surrounding the wood,
the smell of plasmodium could be perceived distinctly, and
soon its veins—white, yellow, and orange—were seen spreading
over the sedges and dead leaves at our feet. One bramble
bush was so decked with white immature sporangia of Diachaea
leucopoda that it looked as if clothed with thick hoar-frost.
Diderma testaceum,with its neat rows of pink sporangia, abounded
on undergrowth of Bitter-sweet, and on the dead leaves around.
Leocarpus fragilis formed shining brown clusters on fallen
twigs, and here we obtained the first British gathering of
Diachaea subsessilis, a species which had been found till then
in New England only. I cannot attempt to tell of all the
treasures afforded by Flitwick Wood that September afternoon,
but we came home laden with thirty-seven species of Mycetozoa.
Since that day, the wood has been drained, and that " Slough
of Despond " exists no longer.
Hedge-Clipfings.—In hedge-clippings and heaps of garden
refuse, we have a somewhat similar habitat to that of leaves
in woodland, but the twigs and deciduous leaves are more mixed
with decaying herbaceous plants. Here again Didymium
squamulosum usually abounds, and with it, especially on dead
herbaceous leaves, may be seen quantities of the small white
scale-like sporangia of that swiftly-developing species, Didymium
difforme. On hedge-clippings also the slender buff sporangia
of Perichaena vermicularis may often be found scattered for
yards along the roadside, but they are so fragile that with
the least jar in collecting they become detached from their
moorings and the delicate tufts of capillitium are lost. On
the felt of hairs clothing the under surface of dead leaves of
the Coltsfoot (Tussilago Farfara), a sessile form of Didymium