Worse than all; Mr. Massee's _alleged_ types are in evidence; one labelled _P. reniforme_[26] includes forms of _P. didermoides_ and of _P. nicaraguense_; the other labelled by Berkeley _P. nutans_ is _P. nicaraguense_. So Mr. T. Petch, _Mycet. Ceyl._, who enters our species as from Ceylon, and the names cited from Berkeley, Massee, and others, as synonyms. He remarks, "Probably Thwaites' 135 and 55 were mixed during examination"! Doubtless! and some other things too! What Massee did have beneath his lens, no one now may say but apparently not in either case cited, the physarum of Central America.
1805. _Physarum sulphureum_ Alb. & Schw., _Consp. Fung._, p. 93, Tab. VI, f. 1. 1818. _Physarum flavum_ Fries, _Symb. Gast._, p. 22. 1875. _Physarum sulphureum_ Alb. & Schw., Rost., _Mon._, p. 101.[27]
Sporangia gregarious, sub-globose, rugulose-squamulose, .6-.8 mm., sulphur-yellow, stipitate; peridium membranous, covered with calcareous scales; stipe stout, white, charged with lime, furrowed; columella none; capillitium strongly calcareous, the nodules large, white; spores violaceous, rough, 9-11 µ.
Northern Europe. (Lusatia) Lausitz, Alb. & Schw.; dim old Wendish region on the south borders of Brandenburg. Reported also from Sweden.
The description and figure given by Schweinitz, 1805, _l. c._, leave no doubt as to what he had in hand. Twenty or thirty years later, having spent the interval in this country,--bishop, indeed, of the Moravian churches, but a student of fungi all the while,--he reports the same thing from this country; _Proc. Phil. Acad. Sci._, 1834. Cooke also lists it in _Myxomycetes of the U. S._ It surely will be found again. Mr. Lister thinks _P. variable_ Rex may be the same thing.
43. PHYSARUM CARNEUM _G. Lister and Sturgis_.
1910. _Physarum carneum_ G. Lister and Sturgis, _Jour. Bot._, Vol. XLVIII, p. 63.
Sporangia gregarious, stipitate, sub-globose, .5 mm. in diameter, ochraceous-yellow above, flesh-colored below; peridium membranous, pale yellow, lime-granules evenly distributed; stipe short, translucent, pinkish flesh-colored; capillitium dense, nodules white; spores purplish-brown, spinulose, 8 µ.
Differs from _P. citrinellum_ in the membranous peridium, flesh-colored stalks and smaller spores.