24
THE MYCETOZOA:
clump of rushes and was conspicuous for yards away ; after being
carefully collected and kept moist, it matured in a few days into
small clay-coloured nodules, characteristic of the ripe aethalia,
which might very easily have been overlooked on the open
hillside. This species has since been found in abundance
in the Forest, near Theydon, and elsewhere, in England.
In bogs, Badhamia lilacina has not unfrequently been obtained
in its plasmodium stage, concentrating in sulphur-yellow masses
on the surface of Sphagnum to form sporangia, which, when
mature, contract into inconspicuous pinkish clusters matching
in colour with the leaves of the bog moss. In the same situation
may be found Lepidoderma tigrinum, whose scaly sporangia,
grey when mature, develop from orange plasmodium, which
may readily catch the eye. I happened once to notice a group
of the immature orange sporangia on Sphagnum high on a bare
shoulder of Croagh Patrick, in Co. Mayo—a situation too
bleak and exposed (I should have thought previously) to favour
the growth of any Mycetozoa.
Mossy Rocks in Mountain Valleys.—As an example of
such a habitat, I will take a narrow ravine I am familiar with
in North Wales, where a mountain torrent leaps in a series of
cascades from the moorland above to join the river Dovey below.
The steep rocky banks are fringed and overhung with thin
growths of oak and mountain ash, and are clothed with a wealth
of ferns, mosses, and liverworts. It is the northward-facing
aspect of this valley that has proved, especially in autumn,
to be such a rich hunting-ground for Mycetozoa. Here, the
wet rocks are sometimes conspicuously veined with the yellow
plasmodium of Badhamia rubiginosa var. globosa, whose dark
sporangia when immature may easily be mistaken for those
of Lamproderma columbinum, a species equally abundant on
these wet mossy banks. Diderma ochraceum is a rare species,
which abounds here in wet seasons, encircling the stems of
liverworts with its horse-shoe and ring-shaped sporangia. The
gem of all the Mycetozoa found in that ravine is Diderma
lucidum, whose bright orange-red sporangia, scattered in the
dim green recesses of beds of Dicranum, gleam out almost like
tiny lamps There is no satisfactory record of this beautiful
species having been found outside Wales.
Bare Earth.—Few instances have yet been recorded of