154 PROTESTS AND DISEASE 



(X370) is shown, 10, to consist of capillitium fibres, in which 

 four spores are supported, but no trace of a membrane is 

 present. 



If the rising sporangia of Comatricha instead of growing 

 perpendicularly were to grow interwoven in all directions 

 and fused together an aethalium such as that of Fuligo, 5, 

 or other similar form, would be the result. When the 

 skeletoplasm is used entirely in the formation of coherent 

 sporangium walls a condition like Tubifera, 14, ensues. 

 The quaint genus, Orcadella, 13, is still more easily derivable 

 from the type of a Comatricha ; and, without its stalk and 

 with its lid replaced by a less definite form of dehiscence, it 

 would become like a Licea, which has the simplest sporangium 

 of all the Mycetozoa. 



