The North American Slime-Moulds Part 9

In America this seems to be a purely western species. Specimens are before us from western Iowa and from Colorado, South Dakota, Nevada, and Southern California. It is very well marked, though liable perhaps to be mistaken at first sight for sessile phases of _P. notabile_ or _P.

cinereum_. The capillitium is, however, at once determinative. Colorado; _Bethel_. Europe generally.

6. BADHAMIA AFFINIS _Rost._

1875. BADHAMIA AFFINIS Rost., _Mon._, p. 143.

Sporangia aggregated, cespitose and sessile, or sometimes stipitate, depressed above, flat or umbilicate below, the wall grayish white, rugulose, and more or less calcareous-scaly; the stipe when present erect or sometimes nodding, black or brownish black; hypothallus scanty; columella none; capillitium not abundant, white, the nodes somewhat expanded; spores globose, minutely roughened, violet-brown, large, 16-17 .

Chiefly on moss, the pale ashen sporangia generally very small, mounted on the tips of the leaves, sometimes sessile, sometimes with a distinct black stipe in which case the peridium is distinctly umbilicate.

Specimens from Kansas referred here have the stipe pale, rugose, long, about twice the sporangium; habitat bark.

Rare. New York, Ohio, Kansas; more recently reported from Scotland and j.a.pan.

There is nothing new to be added here; nor appears any other place to which such material as we have may be referred. New collections no doubt will one day appear, when the ident.i.ty may, let us hope, be made secure.

Meantime we have a form closely related which may be entered as

BADHAMIA IOWENSIS _Macbr. n. s._

Sporangia gregarious or loosely scattered, depressed globose, .4-.6 mm.

in diameter, stipitate, grey, flecked by rather prominent but small rounded calcareous scales: the stipe short, half the diameter of the sporangium, black or very dark brown, without hypothallus but widening above into a shallow expanded base for the sporangia; columella none: capillitium dull yellow, sometimes white, strongly calcareous, physaroid, heavy; spores free, dark brown in ma.s.s, pale violet by transmitted light, minutely verruculose, the tiny warts in some areas more densely placed, producing evident shadowy spots, 10-11 .

This interesting little species occurs on the lower surface of fallen logs, blocks, etc., in colonies of considerable extent, hundreds of sporangia in a place. The capillitium is comparable to that of _B.

decipiens_ or _B. panicea_; it is physaroid to the extent that an occasional filament may be found non-calcic, and not typically badhamioid as in _B. papaveracea_, _B. macrocarpa_. The sporangial base persists, dark brown, bearing traces of the clumsy capillitium, but no columella real or simulated. Blackhawk Co., Iowa; _communicavit Dr.

Jessie Parish_. See Plate XX., 1, 1 _a_, 1 _b_.

Reddish or roseate forms sometimes appear in colonies otherwise as described. It differs from _B. affinis_ in the size and character of the spores, in color and character of the capillitium, habit and surface markings.

7. BADHAMIA MACROCARPA (_Ces._) _Rost._

1855. _Physarum macrocarpon_ Cesati, _Flora_, x.x.xVIII., p. 271.

1875. _Badhamia macrocarpa_ (Ces.) Rost., _Mon._, p. 143.

Sporangia scattered or closely aggregate, crowded globose or sub-globose, generally sessile, rugulose, white; the peridium membranous, white above, below yellowish or brown; capillitium not abundant, thoroughly calcareous, the nodes broad, conspicuous, the connecting tubules rigid; columella none; hypothallus scant or none; spore-ma.s.s black, spores non-adherent, by transmitted light bright clear brown, thickly spinulose all over, large spherical, 12-15 .

Closely resembles externally _B. panicea_, but is easily distinguished by larger and remarkably _spinulose_ spores, in this particular unrivalled in the entire genus. European authors describe both sessile and stipitate forms. American specimens generally are sessile and for the most part closely crowded, almost heaped; but--Prof. Bethel finds this in winter everywhere on fallen rotting stems of Opuntia and on the bases of dead Yucca leaves, still attached. a.s.sociated with the typical phase and often _occurring alone on the Yucca_ leaves is a discoidal form which when first sent in (1908) was called var. _gracilis_.

Presented alone to one ignorant of its history and a.s.sociations, it would surely pa.s.s for a distinct species. This stalked phase is very delicate; the stipe pale brown, or yellow. See Plate II., Fig. 9. See also Sturgis _Col. Coll. Pub._ XII., 408.

8. BADHAMIA ORBICULATA _Rex._

PLATE XIV., Fig. 4.

1893. _Badhamia orbiculata_ Rex. _Proc. Phil. Acad._, p. 372.

1894. _Badhamia macrocarpa Rost._, Lister, _Mycetozoa_, p. 34 (in part).

1911. _Badhamia orbiculata_ Rex., Lister, _Mycetozoa, 2nd ed._, p. 37

Sporangia stipitate or sessile, orbicular discoidal, irregularly elongated or plasmodiocarpous, averaging about 1 mm. in width, generally stipitate, and when stipitate, flattened or depressed above, plane or slightly umbilicate below; the peridium simple, more or less translucent from the varying number of innate granules, sometimes covered with circular flat ma.s.ses of lime, gray except the point of attachment to the stipe which is brown; stipe short, black, rough, plicate; capillitium dense at the centre, radiant at the periphery where it meets the sporangial wall, white; spores violaceous black, minutely warted, 12-15 .

This is a beautiful species, easily known by its discoidal or almost annulate sporangia mounted upon short dark black stipes. The stipe in western collections is sometimes very short, but generally suffices to raise the sporangium, a little at least, above the substratum. Sessile and plasmodiocarpous forms do occur with the typical stipitate phase, but may be regarded here as elsewhere as indicative of incomplete development. Plasmodium cream-colored, or pale yellow.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado.

9. BADHAMIA MAGNA _Peck._

PLATE XIV., Fig. 1.

1871. _Dictydium magnum_ Peck, _Rep. N. Y. State Mus._, XXIV., p. 84.

1879. _Badhamia magna_ Peck, _Rep. N. Y. State Mus._, x.x.xI., p. 56.

1894. _Badhamia macrocarpa Rost._, Lister, _Mycetozoa_, p. 34, in part.

1892. _Bahamia varia_ Ma.s.s. _Mon. Myxog._, p. 319, in part.

1894. _Badhamia magna_ Peck, List., _Mycetozoa_, p. 33.

1899. _Badhamia capsulifera_ (Berk.) Macbr., _N. A. S._, p. 68.

1911. _Badhamia magna_ Peck, Lister, _Mycetozoa, 2nd ed._, p. 34.

Sporangia globose or ellipsoid, .7-1 mm., pale iridescent, stipitate; peridium thin with slight calcareous deposits, rugulose, opening irregularly, white; stipe long flaccid, straw-colored; capillitium an elegant uniform net, its threads stiffened by slight deposits of lime, the nodes little thickened, badhamioid; spores free, dusky with a shade of violet, minutely spinulose, about 10 .

This beautiful species closely resembles some forms of _B. utricularis_ from which it differs chiefly in its uncl.u.s.tered smooth spores. _B.

foliicola_ as recognized here is hardly more than a smaller, short-stemmed form of this; see species next following.

Not rare in the eastern United States and Canada; Iowa. Seems to take the place of _B. capsulifera_ of Europe.

10. BADHAMIA FOLIICOLA _Lister_.

1897. _Badhamia foliicola_ List., _Jour. Bot._, x.x.xV., p. 209.

1911. _Badhamia foliicola_ List., _Mycetozoa, 2nd ed._, p. 34.

"Plasmodium orange." Sporangia smaller, about .5-.6 mm., globose or ellipsoidal, iridescent-gray, stipitate or sessile, the peridium thin, rugulose, sparingly calcareous, when empty white; the stipe when present short but yellowish, of the flaccid sort; capillitium badhamioid; spores free, delicately spinulescent, dusky-violaceous, about 12-13 .

This has been so far collected but once, on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Okoboji.

It was developed, no doubt, on the natural debris of a bur-oak prairie border, and went to fruit on the leaves, stems, and fruiting spikes of a species of _Setaria_. It may prove to be different from the _B.

foliicola_ of Europe; future collections and study must reveal that.

Meantime it seems wise to refer it here.

The color of the plasmodium is quoted from Miss Lister; a fact of some importance only when constant and confirmed by other criteria.

Iowa; Toronto,--_Miss Currie._

11. BADHAMIA UTRICULARIS (_Bull._) _Berk._

1791. _Sphaerocarpus utricularis_ Bull., _Champ._, p. 128, t. 417, Fig. 1.

1826. _Physarum utriculare_ Chev., _Fl. Paris_, I., p. 337.

1829. _Physarum utriculare_ Fries, _Syst. Myc._, III., p. 139.