12 MYCOLOGY 



Yellow I'uligo sepHca. 



Orange Trichia scabra. 



White Physarum elUpsoideum. 



Lead-colored Cribraria argillacea. 



Pink Enteridium splendens. 



Ruby-red Hemitrkhia vesparum. 



Red Tubifera ferruginea. 



Scarlet Cribraria purpurea. 



Brown Tubifera Casparyi. 



Violet Cribraria inolacea. 



The movement of the plasmodium is associated with the incorpora- 

 tion of food. The yellow plasmodium of Badhamia utricularis has 

 been most carefully studied in its relation to a food supply. It can be 

 cultivated on such woody fungi as Stereum kirsutum, over which it 

 extends, devouring by enzyme action the more delicate hyphae. 

 Thus nourished, it will sprea"d over the moist filter paper inside of the 

 covering bell jar until I have seen the plasmodium hanging down 

 like stalactites from the inner top of the bell jar. Such a captive 

 Plasmodium has been fed by the writer pieces of mushroom 

 Agaricus campestris. Shaggymane, Coprinus comatus and beefsteak 

 have been placed on the surface of the protoplasm and in a few hours 

 these substances have been found in advanced stages of digestion. 

 Cheese is reluctantly invaded and is more refractory. The plas- 

 modium is responsive to changes in the moisture surroundings. It 

 moves toward a more abundant water supply. It is hydrotropic. 

 It moves against a current of water and is, therefore, rheotropic. 

 When highly illuminated, the plasmodium moves away from the 

 Ughted surface. It is negatively heliotropic. If there is a sudden 

 change in the watery environment, the plasmodium will become 

 massed into a cake-like lump in which form it remains as a sclerotium, 

 macrocyst, or phlebomorph, if the substratum loses its water supply. 

 In the sclerotial condition, the writer has kept a plasmodium for 

 nine months on a plate of glass placed inside of a laboratory case 

 in an absolutely dry condition. It was started into activity at the 

 end of this period of rest on restoring free water to it again, and 

 by feeding it mushrooms, it was kept in its restored activity for 

 several weeks beneath a bell jar. The plasmodial stage may be pro- 

 longed for an indefinite period, if the environmental conditions of 

 temperature, light, moisture and food, are favorable. The writer has 



