54 Ihe Mycetozoa.) and 



themselves. They curl and twist because they are un- 

 equally expanded. 



SPOKES. The spore is another part of the structure which 

 varies much. Spores vary in size ; they vary in colour, some- 

 times violet or brown, or red or yellow ; they vary in their 

 surface, sometimes smooth, sometimes spinulous or covered 

 with warts ; sometimes covered with a kind of network or 

 furnished with a border or band. All these variations are 

 used as points of distinction in the classification of the 

 myxies, and the presence of a dark violet colour in the 

 species is found, as already mentioned, to be of high 

 classificatory value. 



Another curious point about spores is the tendency in 

 some of them to gather into groups of a more or less definite 

 number, whilst others exhibit no such tendency, but remain 

 single or aggregated without law. The spores of Badhamia 

 utricularis have a tendency to gather into groups of from 

 seven to ten, whilst the spores of its nearest congener, 

 Badhamia hyalina, often congregate in numbers as high 

 as twenty, and in other closely allied forms the spores are 

 free. But this character, though generally true, is not 

 absolutely constant. The spores of B. hyalina are some- 

 times almost free, and the same tendency to variation has 

 been observed in other species. 



ABERRANT FORMS. Having thus given some description 

 of the various parts of the Endosporous Myxies, we shall 

 now revert to the aberrant forms which have hitherto been 

 left out of consideration viz., the Exosporous Myxies 

 and the Acrasieae, the position of which in the classifica- 



