MTX0MYCETE8. 



209 



into a large number of minute rounded bodies, the spores, 

 each of which is provided with a cell-wall. This latter is 

 called the spore-bearing stage, or simply the fructification of 

 the organisms. 



275. — When placed under proper conditions of moisture 



Pig. 141. — Futigo varians (^^thalvwm septicum of Pr.). a spore; 6, c, Bpore-case- 

 rupturing and permitting the protoplasmic contents to escape; of, roimded maps of 

 naked protoplasm escaped from the spore-case; e, /, ciliated ewarm-spore or 

 zoospore stage; g^ A, i, h, l^ amoeba stage; m, young Plasmodium. — After Prantl. 



and temperature, the spores burst their walls, and the im- 

 prisoned protoplasm in each escapes and soon becomes a 

 motile, nucleated mass, provided with 

 a cilium, or having an amoeboid form ; 

 in this stage (called the swarm-spore) 

 it repeatedly divides by simple fission 

 (Pig. 142). After a day or two, the 

 swarm-spores, now destitute of cilia, 

 begin the reverse process of coales- 

 cing, two or more of them fusing into cH^Afdr^Z'^^c^for^l 

 a comm6n mass; the process may If^^SyrSnae^goSrSio',;' 

 continue until a new plasmodium is x 390.— After De Bary. 

 formed, differing from the first one mentioned only in size 

 (Fig. 141, a to m, and Fig. 143). (See Note on page 49.) 



276. — The classification of the Myxomycetes is mainly 

 based upon the fructification, which usually consists of a 



