6 



MYXOMTCETES. 



are produced in sporangia, but in some others * free. The spores 

 are round cells (Fig. 1 a) which in all the true Slime-Fungi are 

 surrounded by a cell-wall. The wall bursts on germination, and 

 the contents float out in the water which is necessary for 

 germination. They move about with swimming and hopping 

 motions like swarmspores (e, /), having a cilia at the front end and 

 provided with a cell-nucleus and a pulsating vacuole. Later on 



FIG. 1. o-l Development of " Fuligo " from spore to Mj-xamoeba ; a-m are magnified 

 390 times ; m is a Myxamoeba, of Ltjcogala epidendron ; I' three Myxamoabfe of Physarum 

 album about to unite; o, a small portion of plasmodiuni, magnified 90 times. 



they become a little less active, and creep about more slowly, while 

 they continue to alter their form, shooting out arms in various 

 places and drawing them in again (g, h, i, k, I, m) ; in this stage 

 they are called Myxamcebce. 



The Myxamceba grows whilst taking up nourishment from the 

 material in which it lives, and multiplies by division. At a later 

 stage a larger or smaller number of Myxamcebae may be seen to 

 1 Acrasiete aud Plasrnodiopkorales, Hid. 



