4 The Mycetozoa, and 



grapes in shape ; he will see that each little berry is 

 attached by a tender stalk to a substance which is a piece 

 of dead wood, and he will notice that these berries are so 

 grouped together as to suggest the notion of a common 

 origin. This little organism is known as Badhamia utricu- 

 laris, the generic name being derived from a Dr. Badham, 

 a labourer in the field of cryptogamic botany, and the 

 specific name describing the bladder-like form of the 

 principal part of the structure. This species is not un- 

 common, and is to be found on stumps and logs of decaying 

 wood. 



The bladder-shaped vessels which we have spoken of 

 are the spore cases of the organism, i.e., they are cases in 

 which the spores are stored, much as seeds are stored in a 

 seed vessel. They are known as sporangia. We have 

 chosen to begin with the organism in this form because 

 it is the most conspicuous, and therefore the most easy 

 for a beginner to get hold of. 



If now a specimen of this Badhamia be placed under the 

 microscope, it will be seen that the coat of the sporangium 

 is a delicate shell containing minute granules of lime, and 

 that the dark appearance of the body is due to the brown 

 spores which lie beneath the transparent shell. Next if a 

 sporangium be broken and the contents examined under 

 the microscope (as shown in Fig. 2), it will be found that 

 the delicate white shell contains a network of threads, 

 also white from the lime with which they are charged, and 

 that they occupy the interior of the sporangium, and pass 

 from wall to wall much like the cancelli in a long bone. 



