Some Questions which they Suggest. 51 



history of Badhamia utricularis described the delicate lime 

 structure of its sporangium. 



Amongst all the delicate forms of the myxies there is 

 none perhaps more beautiful than that of the genus 

 Craterium. The sporangium, as the name of the genus is 

 meant to tell, is goblet-shaped, and the top of the cup is 

 usually covered with a distinct lid, which rests on the sides 

 of the cup. In C. pedunculatum the colours sometimes 

 suggest the notion of a golden cup with a silver lid, and 

 in this dainty cup is found a capillitium of large white 

 lime knots, connected by delicate hyaline or yellow threads, 

 as shown in some of the broken sporangia of Fig. 8. 



It has been suggested that the lime is to be regarded 

 merely as an excretion, a thing of which the organism 

 desires to be rid in its actively living parts. Be it so or 

 not, it is evident that the organism sometimes continues 

 to make this substance subserve the useful purpose of 

 support. 



It is worth while to note the several ways in which the 

 capillitium appears to be used to attain the same end the 

 maturing and disposal of the spores. Sometimes it is the 

 untwisting of the hygrometric spiral hairs which disperses 

 them (as in Trichia, Fig. 12) ; sometimes it is the uprising 

 of the elastic pillow contained in the sporangium (as in 

 Arcyria, Fig. 6) ; sometimes it is by the spreading branches 

 of the capillitium that the spores are scattered over a wide 

 surface, as in Enerthenema; sometimes they are inelastic 

 and charged with lime, and are then used as beams to 

 prevent the walls of the sporangium from falling in and so 



E2 



