76 N. H. COWDRY. 



On germination the protoplasmic content of the spore escapes. 

 It soon becomes actively motile, develops a flagellum and food 

 vacuole and reminds one forcibly of the flagellates. The flagel- 

 lum is withdrawn and the organism either goes into a brief 

 resting stage (microcyst) or multiplies freely by fission. In the 

 case of multiplication by fission there is a karyokinetic figure and 

 distinctive chromosomes may be seen. Finally these swarm 

 cells clump together and fuse to form another plasmodium. 



The granulations about to be described are identified as mi- 

 tochondria on the basis of the following observations: 



1. Their morphology is identical with that of mitochondria in 

 the higher forms of both plants and animals. While they are 

 for the most part spherical, rod-shaped forms do occur. 



2. Their distribution is also characteristic. They are generally 

 single but are often arranged in rows like streptococci, or in 

 clumps. They seem to be rather more abundant near the nuclei 

 and about the circumference of the vacuoles. 



3. The janus-green reaction is exhibited beautifully by the 

 mitochondria when the contents of the adult spores are crushed 

 out in janus-green solution. 



4. They are easily fixed by Regaud's mixtures, as indicated 

 above. 



5. They may be stained by the standard mitochondrial 

 methods including the iron-hematoxylin method, the Altmann 

 method, fuchsin and methyl green, and the Benda method. 



I have been able to discover no descriptions relating to them 

 in the literature except possibly that of Harper ('oo, p. 251, 

 fig. 1 8), who made a study of cell and nuclear division in Fuligo 

 varians, and found certain granules, in a single spore cell only, 

 which he refers to as "granules of reserve material, " in a prepara- 

 tion fixed in Flemming's weak fluid and stained with safranin, 

 gentian violet and orange. These granulations present the same 

 morphology as mitochondria, but in the total absence of detailed 

 information, there is no means of ascertaining their nature. 



In Enteridium rozeamim, we find comparatively large areas of 

 protoplasm in which no differentiations of any sort can be dis- 

 tinguished. There are no nuclei, no mitochondria and but few 

 vacuoles (Fig. i). Such extensive areas of protoplasm without 



