724 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



as its extreme lightness and small compass into which it packed would 

 add but little to the weight or the contents of a knapsack. 



Mr. C. Beck exhibited a portable model of the " London Microscope," 

 which was made to fold up in the smallest possible space, and packed 

 into a leather case, containing also three objectives, two eye-pieces, and 

 other useful accessories. The instrument was fitted with a good fine 

 adjustment, and was of the first quality in every way. He also exhibited 

 a modification of the ordinary centrifuge, made to run by an electric 

 current at a very high rate of speed, which could be regulated within 

 certain limits by the interposition of different resistances (see p. 694). 



The President said that this portable Microscope was a great con- 

 trast to the other as regards weight, but it was a remarkably complete 

 and compact instrument for holiday work. 



The thanks of the Society were, on the motion of the President, 

 cordially voted to Messrs. C. L. Curties and C. Beck for bringing these 

 new instruments for exhibition. 



The President said he had brought to the Meeting some specimens 

 of the Mycetozoa, which he hoped would interest the Fellows of the 

 Society. The Mycetozoa belong to a group of organisms which it was 

 somewhat difficult to place, because at one stage of their life they seem 

 to be animals, and at another they are true vegetables. The specimens 

 belong to a species which has been recently described as Badhamia 

 foliicola by Mr. Arthur Lister, F.B.S., in the Journal of Botany * Their 

 nearest affinities are with the Fungi. Like fungi they are not able to 

 manufacture their food from inorganic materials, but obtain it from 

 living or dead animals or plants, being either parasites or saprophytes. 

 The spore of the Mycetozoa is a round body with a distinct cell-wall 

 which has been separated in some cases into two layers. The cell-wall 

 under chemical reagents gives the reaction of cellulose. When the spore 

 begins to germinate, the wall is burst by the increasing size of the 

 protoplasm, which pushes its way out of the sporange. For a short time 

 it remains dormant, and then it begins to elongate into a pear-shaped 

 form. From the apex is developed a flagellum ; a nacleus and some 

 vacuoles can be observed. Increasing in number by fission, many of 

 the amoeboids join together to form a plasmodium, which takes in its food 

 just as an Amoeba does. They might be found in this stage living upon 

 dead wood and dead leaves from which they obtain their food. It is 

 easy to cultivate these organisms ; and if put into a damp chamber upon 

 blotting-paper, they will begin to develop, and the plasmodium will in 

 time spread itself over the blotting-paper. Afterwards sporanges are 

 formed, either sessile or stalked, which usually contain a large number 

 of fine threads intended to support the spores. When the sporange is 

 ripe it bursts, and the dark coloured spores are scattered. He hoped 

 the examination of these specimens might interest some Fellows in this 

 curious group. This is the time of year when they are most abundant 

 on decaying wood and on dead leaves. It is most interesting to watch 



* Journ. of Bot., 1899, p. 145. 



