500 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



disorganization of the wall, and frequently remain adherent to tlio 

 spores. The zygospores, which had not previously been known, tho 

 author obtained from an alcoholic decoction of pears and plums. 

 M. rircinelloidcs forms zygospores on horse-dung. It is readily 

 cultivated on a decoction of malt or of plimis, but docs not apjKsar to 

 I)roduce zygospores under these conditions. They are red, and 

 furnished with long pointed projections. Both these species become 

 transformed, under suitable conditions, into " spheric ferment " ; but 

 the presence of this ferment is not necessarily connected with tlie 

 production of alcohol. Three new species of Mucor arc also 

 described, 31. crectus, fragilis, and mollis, with their zygospores ; tho 

 first of these produces also azygospores, resembling the zygospores in 

 apiicarancc. 



The zygospores of Chcptocladhim Brefeldii resemble, in all 

 important points, those of Mucor. Thamnidmm elegans is hetero- 

 sporangeons, producing larger and smaller sporangia. The zygospores 

 arc only produced by special cultivation. 



Protopiiyta. 



Amceboideae. * — M. C. Gobi includes as one group under this 

 name all the lowest forms of vegetable life destitute of chlorophyll, 

 which he connects genetically with the more highly developed 

 Hyphomycctes. While in the latter the morphological fundamental 

 element is a hypha, a cell or row of cells provided with a cell-wall, 

 in the former it is a naked protoplasmic body endowed with 

 metabolic movement, which the author terms an amceboid. 



The point of departure of the whole series is presented by some 

 protamoeba-forms, the lowest organisms as yet known. Among tho 

 various forms described by Hiickel, Gobi adopts only four, viz. : — 

 Protnmaha primitiva, agilis, simjAex, and Schulzeana, which he thinks 

 may possibly unite with one another in pairs. The protamcebsB 

 retain their amo3boid form during the wliolc of their life. The next 

 step is furnished by Vampyrella, which may be regarded as a 

 cyst-forming protamccba. Here there occurs also a coalescence of 

 amccboids, which the author regards both as a peculiar form of 

 nutrition, and as the simplest form of impregnation. In both respects 

 Vcmpjrella recalls the Myxomycetes. The Vampyrclla-cjsts are 

 analogous to the microcysts or thick-walled cells of the Myxomycetes. 

 An intermediate link is presented by V. polijplasta Sorok., since here 

 there is an occasional formation of internal cysts, recalling strongly 

 the formation of spores within the sporangia of the eudosporous 

 Myxomycetes. The genera 3Ionas Cuk., Protomyxa Hiick., and 

 probably Gohiella Cnk., may be united with Vamfyrella into tho 

 family Vampyrellece: All the forms are characterized by the want of 

 internal differentiation and the absence of a cell-nucleus. The 

 amoeboid displays at this stage a more or less well marked tendency 

 to assume the form of a zoogcmidium. 



An internal differentiation into cell-nucleus and pulsating vacuole 



* Arbeit. St. Peterdb. Natur. GcscU., xv. (1S84) pp. 1-36 (Eussian). See 

 I3ot. Coutralbl., xxi. (1885) p. 35. 



