

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OV ZOOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION 15 



are raised on stalks. The protoplasm within the cyst then 

 divides into a large number of minute nucleated particles, each 

 with a firm wall of cellulose about it; these particles are called 

 spores, and hence the cyst is called a sporangium. After a time 

 the sporangium is ruptured, and finally the protoplasm emerges 

 from the spore and moves about like a unicellular animal with 

 amoeboid movements, and feeds on bacteria. These motile par- 

 ticles may be called amcebulae. In time many of them coalesce 

 to form a plasmodium with a common mass of protoplasm, but 

 with distinct nuclei, and thus the life-cycle is completed. (Fig. 1.) 

 Their amoeboid movements and method of feeding incline us to 

 place them among the animals ; on the other hand the minute 

 structure of the sporangium and the method in which the spores 

 are formed within it are strikingly like what we find in some of 

 the lower plants called fungi ; hence it is difficult to say in 

 which kingdom these organisms are more properly placed. 



