THE MYXOMYCETES OF PICTOU COUNTY. — MOORE. 171 



l)v ^Ir. Arthur Lister on the plasmodium of Badhamia utricu- 

 laris are reported in the Annals of Botany, Vol. 2, No. 5. He 

 fonnd that the phismodium of this species could be raised from 

 a sluggish and scarcely moving condition to one of great activity 

 by supplying it with Agaricus campestris, Boletus ffavus or with 

 Ihe prepared hymenial surface of Stereum hirsutum. "\VheTi 

 Agaricus fasciularis yvas supplied, the piasmodium for three 

 liours refused it altogether, but when at last invaded, in one 

 instance the section was rejected and never touched again and 

 in another the piasmodium which had partaken of this fungus 

 exhibited the most pronounced symptoms of disorder. Mr. 

 Lister also found that starch, after being treated with warm 

 water was readily absorbed and digested by the piasmodium of 

 tills species, but that perfectly raw starch remained unaffected. 

 The process of digestion appears generally to take place in 

 the streaming granular interior substance ; but in one instance 

 at least, a like power of digestion was exhibited by the hyaline 

 margin, in which the dissolution of fungiis hyphse was observed 

 to take place. 



Resting State. When subjected to a slow drying process, 

 young Plasmodia may pass into a resting form, known as 

 macrocysts. The plasmodnim breaks up irregularly, each part 

 rounds off and surrounds itself with a wall which becomes 

 thickened and laminated. "When placed in water the contents 

 of these cysts swell up and issue forth as ama?boid bodies. 

 Macrocysts of this kind occur in Perichcvna and Fuligo. 



Another resting form sometimes occurs in fully developed 

 Plasmodia. A piasmodium comes to rest and forms a number 

 of lumps of almost .hora-like consistency, frequently connected 

 by strands of similar material. These lumps and strands con- 

 sist wholly of compaiatively laige cells filled with a granular, 

 generally colored plasma. These fonns are designated sclerotia 

 and exhibit the wintering condition of plasmodia. When the 

 sc]erotia are brought into contact with water, each cell swells 



Paoc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci.. Vol. XII- Trans. 12. 



