138 J. SATJNDEES — NOTES OS THE MTCETOZOA. 



distributed in anastomosing veins, some minute, and others a quarter 

 of an inch wide, and sometimes spread out into fan-shaped figures 

 towards the margins of the mass. So slight was its adhesion to 

 the bark, that a worm was seen to crawl between the two. We 

 knew almost intuitively that it was what we had so long sought, 

 namely the plasmodium of a Mycetozoon. The term plasmodium is 

 that by which the creeping stage of these creatures is designated. 

 After carefully examining it, looking at it from every aspect, 

 and noting its dimensions and general appearance, we took off a 

 portion with plenty of the underlying decayed wood, so as to 

 observe it at home at our leisure. After crawling about the wood 

 for four or five days, the granular contents contracted into small 

 protuberances in the veins ; and on the following day these changed 

 into minute capsules, which eventually became greyish-white, and 

 filled with dark spores. 



Having thus once found plasmodium, we had little difficulty in 

 finding it in other places afterwards. It is expedient, we soon 

 became aware, to examine the under side of fallen branches, as 

 it appears to avoid light. 



A small specimen of an allied species to the one mentioned above, 

 was attached to a piece of wood that lay in contact with a larger 

 one, but only by a narrow stiip about a quarter of an inch wide. 

 The Plasmodium used this strip as a bridge, and, by a single sinuous 

 vein, nearly the whole of it passed over to the larger piece of wood. 

 After having spread out on its surface and absorbed what food was 

 available, it crept back again to its original position, and eventually 

 formed its fruit. 



On another occasion a small quantity of greenish-yellow plas- 

 modium was found attached to the under side of a small rotten 

 branch. This was placed under observation for several days, 

 after which it mysteriously disappeared, its former position being 

 marked by slimy tracks. One of us thought that it was dead, but 

 the juvenile observer hoped that it had only crept into the wood. 

 This was really the case, for after a few days it came out of its 

 concealment, and formed a delicate group of fruits of a golden- 

 yellow hue. The circumstance is noteworthy, inasmuch as it 

 proved to be a rare species [Badhamia inatfrata) of which the plas- 

 modium stage had been recorded but once before. 



Yet another instance of the peculiar habits of these organisms. 

 Two small masses of plasmodium had been under observation for 

 several weeks, and it was thought that they did not seem healthy, 

 possibly wanting a change of diet. Accordingly a fungus, one of 

 the polyporous group, was soaked in water, divided in halves, and 

 a portion placed near each. Both of the plasmodia crept from 

 their positions, and crawled over the respective portions of supposed 

 aliment. Unfortunately it was the last journey for each of them, 

 for either from the detrimental qualities of the fungus, or from 

 acarites that may have infested them, both plasmodia perished, 

 after two or three days of evident decadence. 



Sensitive creatures are these plasmodia; requiring special en- 



