40 THE MYCETOZOA:
almost throughout the year in mild weather, most abundant
from July to October ; the var. confluens Lister, a form in
which the sporangia unite in a confluent mass with columellae
either branched and anastomosing or absent, has been found
several times in the Forest and Wanstead Park ; the var. rufes-
cens Lister is as abundant as the typical form.
S. splendens Rost. var. flaccida Lister.—Not unfrequent
on dead wood in summer ; the rich purplish-red colour of the
freshly formed sporangia fades to dull purple brown after
they have been kept some years.
S. confluens Cooke and Ellis.—Found once on a birch stump,
during one of the Club's Fungus Forays, near High Beach in
October 1904. This species is closely allied to the preceding,
differing in the confluent sporangia and the larger darker spores.
5. herbatica Peck.—Not uncommon, occurring on old
stumps in August and September. The var. confluens Lister,
a curious form having the sporangia combined into a convolute
mass with rather persistent walls, was found in July 1894, on a
heap of dead leaves and sticks near Woodford. The only
other gatherings that I know of are from far distant places,
viz. from Connecticut, Java, Ceylon and South Nigeria.
6'. flavogenita Jahn.—Abundant on stumps, sticks, grass
etc., throughout the summer and early autumn : the yellow
plasmodium has the habit of creeping away from the wood
where it has fed to form sporangia on surrounding herbage.
S. ferruginea Ehrenb.—Not uncommon on prostrate
logs and stumps from May to early autumn. The sporangia
vary much in size in different growths ; specimens from High
Beach have attained the height of 20 mm. ; in var. Smithii,
Lister, which has been found near Walthamstow, the sporangia
are 4 to 6 mm. high.
Comatricha nigra (Pers.) Schroeter.—Very abundant on
sticks and dead wood throughout the year if the weather is
moist and mild ; var. alta Lister, a tall form with a loose tangle
of capillitium attached mainly to the base of the long columella,
has occurred in the Leytonstone forest on logs in November
and March.
C. elegans (Racib.) Lister.—The only Essex record is a small
gathering made by Mr. Ross in the Lower Forest, north of Epping,
in the summer of 1913.