THE MYCETOZOA 147 



Mitochondria were found to be abundant in Mycetozoa 

 by Cowdry (quoted by Sharp). 



Conditions of life or bionomics, &c. From what has been 

 given above many of the habits and life-relationships of 

 Mycetozoa will have been inferred. In the growth-period 

 those that can be watched from their developing among 

 decaying leaves or on the surface of rotting wood, etc., are 

 attracted by moderate degrees of light and heat, and repelled 

 by extremes. Grown on glass with a minimum of food a 

 plasmodium of Fuligo sent out pseudopodia vigorously into 

 a solution of glucose or an infusion of tan brought into 

 contact with a part of it. 



The plasmodium is rheotropic : when a gentle stream of 

 water is directed over a slide or through a strip of linen or 

 filter-paper and this is brought into contact with a plasmo- 

 dium, the latter moves against the stream on to and over the 

 substratum. 



As to nutrition, the zoospores and plasmodium are 

 holozoic in many species, solid ingesta being digested in 

 food-vacuoles, the contents of which are acid, though the 

 reaction of the plasmodium itself is alkaline. Mycetozoa 

 have a facility for digesting cellulose, whether extraneous 

 or of their own making. The hyphae of Stereum hirsutum 

 can be seen to dissolve as the hyaline border of a wave of 

 plasmodium of Badhamia utricularis advances over them 

 (A. Lister). 



W. T. Elliott found that the plasmodium of B. utricularis 



