Chapter II: CIENKOWSKIA, Rost. Plasmodiocarp terete, elongated, flexuous,

creeping, and reticulate, irregularly dehiscent; the wall a more or less thickened membrane, externally naked, with the granules of lime on the inner surface. Capillitium of slender tubules, combined into an irregular network, attached on all sides to the wall of the sporangium, and bearing everywhere short pointed or uncinate free branchlets; the lime in thin transverse plates and irregular nodules. Spores globose, violaceous.

The peculiar characteristic of this genus is the short free hooked and pointed branchlets of the capillitium.

1. CIENKOWSKIA RETICULATA, A. & S. Plasmodiocarp more or less elongated, curved and flexuous, simple or branched, sometimes confluent and reticulate, breaking away first along the upper surface, leaving an irregular margin. The wall a firm yellow membrane, with thinner hyaline areas and with thicker yellow-brown or red-brown spots; the outer surface without any lime, smooth, and shining; the inner surface with a dense layer of yellow granules raised at intervals into transverse ridges, these are connected with broad thin flat plates of lime which traverse the capillitium, forming imperfect septa to the sporangium. Capillitium consisting of slender yellow tubules, forming a network of irregular meshes, with slight expansions at the angles and bearing along the sides short pointed or uncinate free branchlets; the tubules containing a few scattered yellow nodules of lime various in size and shape. Spores globose, very minutely warted, violaceous, 8-10 mic. in diameter.

Growing on old wood, bark, leaves, etc. Plasmodiocarp in veins .3-.5 mm. in thickness, sometimes forming a net-work a centimeter or more in extent. This curious Myxomyces seems very rare in America. I have met with it but once. The specimen in the herbarium of Schweinitz, marked _Physarum reticulatum_, is not this species, though it answers well enough to the original description.