It is sometimes called Torrubia capitata.
CHAPTER XVII.
MYXOMYCETES.
The plants under this head belong to the slime-moulds and at first are wholly gelatinous. All the species and genera are small and easily overlooked, yet they are intensely interesting when carefully observed. In the morning you may see a mass of gelatinous matter and in the evening a beautiful net work of threads and spores, the transformation being so rapid. This gelatinous mass is known as protoplasm or plasmodium, and the motive power of the plasmodium has suggested to many that they should be placed in the animal kingdom, or called fungus animals. The same is true of Schizomycetes, to which all the bacteria, bacillus, spirillum, and vibrio, and a number of other groups belong. I have only a few Myxomycetes to present. I have watched the development of a number of plants of this group, but because of the scarcity of literature upon the subject I have been unable to identify them satisfactorily.
Lycogala epidendrum. Fr.
Figure 494.—Lycogala epidendrum.
This is called the Stump Lycogala. It is quite common, seeming in a certain stage to be a small puffball. The peridium has a double membrane, papery, persistent, bursting irregularly at the apex; externally minutely warty, nearly round, blood-red or pinkish, then brownish; mouth irregular; spores becoming pale, or violet.