hypothallus; capillitium
dense, intricate; the nodules white, with comparatively little lime,
thin, expanded, angular or branching; columella none; spore-mass black,
spores violaceous, minutely roughened, about 8-10 mu.

This extremely delicate and beautiful form is certainly not to be
referred to _Tilmadoche alba_ (Bull.) Fr. Fries, who seems to have known
of _P. compressum_ A. & S. and refers _it_ to _P. nutans_ Pers., _op.
cit._, p. 130, annotates the present species: "Species especially
remarkable in the stipe, in the internal structure, and in its whole
habit, nor is there any other with which it may be compared. Peridium
thin, not uniform, presently breaking up into laciniate scales; at first
yellow, then bluish-ashen; when empty, white. The form inconstant,
globose, depressed, but never umbilicate at the base." If we may judge
by what Fries says on the subject, he certainly distinguished clearly
between this species and _T. alba_ (Bull.), to say nothing of the
stouter, larger, in every way coarser forms called by Rostafinski _P.
nefroideum_, _P. compressum_, _P. lividum_, etc.

The shadowy little species has had an eventful history, dipping in and
out of our story in most uncertain fashion. Beginning with Fries, as
noted, it received confirmation at the hands of DeBary, and by
Rostafinski was given priority over a long list of synonyms, and
figured. The earlier English authors follow Rostafinski, but for Lister
in the _Mycetozoa_, p. 51, the species becomes a synonym of _T. alba_ as
_P. nutans_, the description appropriately enlarged to receive it.
Meantime American students generally confused it with the tilmadoches on
the one hand and _P. nefroideum_ R. (supposed) on the other. In 1897,
Robt. Fries in _Sver. Myxom. Flora_, brings the species again to view as
co-partner with _P. nutans_ and in the _Mycetozoa, 2nd ed._, p. 67, it
appears as sub-species to the same.

The resemblance to _P. album_ or _P. nutans_, is chiefly as intimated, a
matter of definition; real differences are found in the irregular
capillitium, fitting a globose sporange, in the character of the stipe
and the consequent pose. See under _P. nutans_ and _P. notabile_.

34. PHYSARUM NODULOSUM _Cke. & Balf._

1881. _Physarum nodulosum_ Cke. & Balf., _Rav. N. A. F._, Exsic., 479.
1889. _Badhamia nodulosa_ Massee, _Jour. Myc._, Vol. V., p. 186.
1891. _Physarum calidris_ Lister, _Jour. Bot._, Vol. XXIX., p. 258.
1896. _Craterium nod