100 



THE MYXOMYCETES— NOTES ON BEAVERS. 



out, either in the wall of the sporanginm or in the capillitium, or in 

 both, and the water is exiielled or evaporates. This process takes 

 place veiy quickly, and thus the cycle of development is completed. 



In a few instances, as in Euerthenema and Ophiotheca, the spores 

 are described as being attached to the threads, but it is possible that 

 this is a mistake, and that the spores are really always free, being 

 formed like those of the Ascomycetes. Certainly I could find no trace 

 of their attachment in any specimen of Euerthenema which I have 

 examined.* It will be seen that, in this formation of the spores by 

 endogenous division, the Myxomycetes diiTer essentially from the 

 Trichogastres and the Nidulariacei, between which they are placed in 

 Berkeley's classification, as well as from the other Gastromycetes, in 

 which the spores are always borne upon sporophores, just as in the 

 higher group. 



It is but just to say that the foregoing account of the germination 

 of the spores is not uncontradicted. Both Berkeley and Currey f 

 mention having observed the spore of a Myxom}'cete germinate in the 

 ordinary way by the emission of a hyphal filament ; but we may more 

 easily suppose that in these cases the spore of some extraneous species 

 was accidentally present than that all other observers are wrong, or 

 that both methods of germination are possible. Van Tieghem has 

 recently described a modification of the process related above, where 

 the myxamoebae, instead of forming a plasmodium in which the units 

 of which it is composed are undistinguishable, remain completely 

 independent though aggregated together, each forming itself into 

 a single spore with a cellulose coat.+ 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES ON BEAVEES AND THE BUTE BEAVERY.§ 



BY EGBERT DE HAMEL. 



Amongst the Mammalia is a most interesting group of animals, 

 many species of which exist or have existed in Great Britain, whose 

 domestic economy is to a large extent unobserved owing to their 

 extreme timidity and consequent shy and nocturnal habits, albeit their 

 names are for the most part familiar to us. I refer to the order 

 Eodentia, or gnawing animals, which includes the various genera of rat, 

 mouse, squirrel, hare, rabbit, porcupine, capybara, guinea-pig, and the 

 subject of my present paper, the beaver. 



* Dr. Quelet has recently asserted that the spores of all species are borne on 

 the threads as sporophores, apparently on his own authority. But then he 

 also calls the plasiiiodiuui by the totally inappropriate name of uiycelium — 

 "J. de Photo, et de Micro.," 1881, translated in " Northern Microscopist," 

 March, 188-2. 



+ " Transactions of the Linuean Society," xxiv., p. 156. 



t Van Tieghem, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxvii., pp. .317— '2-2. 



§ Bead before the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Societv, 

 Fobrnarv 11th. 1882, 



