MYXOMYCETES 



635 



from which extensions are put forth { J) ; and by the union of a 

 number of these bodies are produced the motile protoplasmic bodies 

 known as plasmocles, the ordinary form in which these singular bodies 

 are known. These continue to grow by the ingestion and assimila- 

 tion of the solid nutriment which they take into their substance ; 

 and, by the ramification and inosculation of these extensions, a 

 complete network is formed. 



The filaments of this network exhibit active undulatory move- 



FIG. 474. Development of Myxomycetes : A, plasrnode of Didymium serpula ; B, 

 successive stages, a, a', 6, of sporanges of Arcyria flava ; C, ripe spore of 

 Physarum- album-, D, its contents escaping; E, F, G, the swarm-spore first 

 becoming flagellated, and then amoeboid ; H, conjugation of two amceboids, which, 

 at I, have fused together, and, at J, are beginning to put out extensions and ingest 

 nutriment, of which two pellets are seen in its interior. 



meiits, which in the larger ones are visible under an ordinary lens, 

 or even to the naked eye, but which it requires microscopic power to 

 discern in the smaller. With sufficiently high amplification, a con- 

 stant movement of granules may be seen flowing along the threads, 

 and streaming from branch to branch. Here and there offshoots of 

 the protoplasm are projected, and again withdrawn, in the manner of 

 the pseudopodes of an Amoeba ; while the whole organism may be 

 occasionally seen to abandon the support over which it had grown, 



