148 MVXOMYCETES 



breaks up into a large number of separate bodies each of which 

 forms its own covering and develops independently its own 

 spores. In a few cases these spores are produced from the 

 whole mass of the plasmodium within the wall ; in most cases, 

 however, the plasmodium forms both spores and thread-like 

 bodies, known as capillitium, which are often of exquisite de- 

 signs and are marked in elegant patterns. This serves in var- 

 ious ways the purpose of bursting the wall of the spore-case and 

 more gradually scattering the spores. These spores may in some 

 cases germinate at once or they may remain for a long period 

 before germination. Specimens have been kept for nearly four 

 years without losing their power of germination, and it is quite 

 possible that they would remain a longer time if kept under fav- 

 orable conditions. 



Under certain conditions the plasmodium may take upon it- 

 self a more solid form resulting in part from the exclusion of 

 its water and compact itself into a hardened cheesy mass which 

 will remain in a dormant condition for a greater or less time, 

 sometimes for years, before it is awakened into life by the na- 

 tural recurrence of favorable conditions. In these various ways 

 the forms of slime moulds have maintained themselves as a dis- 

 tinct group and have become widely distributed over the face of 

 the earth. 



The time required for the germination of the spores after being 

 placed in water depends on various causes and may occur in as 

 short a space as a half hour or may require nearly a day. The 

 time necessary for a plasmodium to transform itself from a creamy 

 mass of slime to fully formed sporangia will also vary in different 

 species but in the case of Stcmonitis we have known the whole 

 transformation to take place in the hours between ten at night and 

 five the following morning. 



The foot of the stalk is sometimes expanded into a hypothallus and this in 

 turn fuses with similar expansions from other stalks so as to form a con- 

 tinuous membrane. 



2. K plasviodiocarp elongate, irregular, and often branched or reticulate 

 is formed flat on the substratum from the transformation of the plasmodium. 



3. An aethallizim consisting of a mass formed by the fusion of many 

 sporangia or plasmodiocarps either regularly or more often irregularly. 

 This is sometimes covered with a cortex secreted from the protoplasm. 



