38] 



NOTES ON THE CULTIVATION OF PLASMODIA OF 



BAD HAM I A UTRICULARIS. 



By A. E. Hilton. 



{Head May 26*A, 1914.) 



Fig. 6. 



A free-flowing mass of naked and almost undifferentiated 

 protoplasm, such as we have in the plasmodium of Badhamia 

 utricularis, suggests opportunities for biological experiments, 

 with unusual promise of success. From living matter in so 

 primitive a condition, it should be possible, one imagines, to gain 

 a more intimate knowledge of the fundamental substance which 

 is the basis of all physical life. 



Systematic investigations, however, depend upon a constant 

 supply of material, and a continuous supply of plasmodia is not 

 easy to obtain. In natural surroundings, they are only to be 

 found when conditions of temperature and moisture are suitable ; 

 and even then, in most districts, they are very scarce. More- 

 over, the removal of a plasmodium to a place suitable for 

 studying it, generally results in the plasmodium shortly passing 

 into the sporangial stage, or perishing from lack of proper 

 nutriment. Either way, the immediate end is defeated. 



In the Introduction to Mr. Lister's Monograph of the 

 Mycetozoa, recently revised by his daughter, it is stated that 

 " The plasmodium of Badhamia utricularis is one of the very few 

 we are acquainted with that feed on living fungi," and that " it 

 is capable of being cultivated without limit on Stereum hirsutum 

 and allied species, and can be observed under the microscope to 

 dissolve fungus hyphae as the hyaline border of a wave of the 

 yellow plasmodium advances over them." In many places, 

 however, an unfailing stock of the fungus mentioned is difficult 

 to ensure ; so that here, again, a difficulty arises. 



