84 H. MARSHALL WARD. 



rate partially successful. Having cultivated several fairly large Plas- 

 modia, I inverted the cover-slip (fig. 28c) and suspended vertically 

 from a glass filament (/) supported by a cork (e) a piece of fresh clean 

 Hyacinth root (A) so that its tip plunged into the drop (d) containing 

 the plasmodia. The whole was then placed within a larger damp 

 chamber, and the root kept thoroughly wet : in several cases the plas- 

 modia crept on to the root, and in one example I believe that a plas- 

 modinm commenced to form a sporangium. Further than this I was 

 not able to go, and so the matter rests for a time, my investigations 

 being brought to an end by the pressure of other business. 



It now remains to say what can be decided as to the systematic 

 position of this aquatic myxomycete. 



Classification. 



Eostafinski 1 divides the more typical Myxomycetes ("Endosporese") 

 into seven groups or " orders," characterised chiefly by the presence 

 or absence of lime in the fructification, the colour of the spores, 

 presence or absence of a capillitium and columella, &c. According 

 to this classification the present Myxomycete would be included under 

 Eostafinski's order VI. Calcarece, and of the four " tribes " into which 

 these are divided, we may at once discard the fourth, Simmariacece, on 

 account of the columella there present. If the nature of the deposits 

 of calcium carbonate — in crystals or amorphous — is really to be 

 regarded as important, which may well be doubted, then the tribes 

 Cienhowshiacece and Physaracece may be also put aside as not 

 including the present species, and we are limited to the Didymiacece. 

 But here there is also a columella, and so on ; the fact being that the 

 aquatic myxomycete I have described would, if certain characters were 

 insisted on, impel us to connect two or more of Eostafinski's "tribes." 



If we now follow the classification proposed by Zopf, 2 we may at 

 once discard the first group of his extended system — the Monadinece — 

 for, although they are usually aquatic, they form no true plasmodia. 

 Turning to the Eumycetozoa, which Zopf characterises as " Luftbeivohner" 

 however, there are three sub-groups to notice ; the first (Sorophorece) 

 have no zoospore stage, the plasmodia are not typical, and there are 

 other characters which at once exclude the present Myxomycete : the 

 third group, comprising the one genus Cerathmi, may also be forthwith 



' Versuch eines Systems der Mycetozoa. (Iuaug. diss., Strassburg, 1S73.) 

 a Zopf, op. cit., p. 95, 



