THE MYCETOZOA 



the sporangium is known as the capillitium. At the periphery it is 

 continuous with the sporangium wall. 



The lime granules, which existed free in the plasmodium, pass 

 out of the protoplasm simultaneously with this secretion. Some 

 are sparsely scattered through the sporangium wall, but the 

 majority are closely packed in the strands of the capillitium, which 

 are white and brittle in consequence (Figs. 9, d, and 10). 



Until the secretion of sporangium wall and capillitium is 

 complete the protoplasm remains a homogeneous mass, with 

 multitudes of nuclei scattered through it. Their completion is 

 followed by a division of the nuclei by karyokinesis, which occurs 



Fio. 10. 



20. To the left are three sporangia, the walls of which 

 H naniiijtium. Three to the right are unopened ; above 

 of the capillitium. 



simultaneously throughout the sporangium and occupies from one 

 to one and a half hours (Fig. II). 1 While this is in progress the 

 protoplasm breaks up into rounded masses which contain some 6-10 

 nuclei, but they subsequently divide into masses, each containing 

 one of the dividing nuclei ; and as the nuclear division is completed 

 and the daughter nuclei draw apart, a further division of the 

 protoplasm occurs, and each nucleus then occupies a single mass 

 of protoplasm (Fig. 12). These masses are the young spores. 

 They soon secrete a spore-wall which is of a violet-brown colour^ 



1 This was first observed by Strasburger (23) in Trichia fallax. The observation 

 has been repeated by my father in two other species of Trichia, and in representatives 

 of the genera C'omatricha, Physarum, and Badhamia (17), and, since that paper was- 

 published, in Reticularia and Arcyria. 



