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Mycologia 



the ectosarc at that point yields; the inner cytoplasm follows, 

 usually in direction normal to the basic surface, aided, of course, 

 now by relatively increased surface-tension pressure on each side. 

 As the ectosarc is thus carried up, it becomes, by desiccation per- 

 haps, steadily fixed, from below upward, in position as in form, 

 becomes indeed a capillary tubule closed entirely above by a film 

 of ever-diminishing thickness. Against this continues the mass- 

 pressure of the inner cytoplasm, spore-plasm it shall be, squeezed 

 by increasing surface-tension from below, helped now no doubt by 

 the capillarity of the hollow stem, until the upper remaining mem- 

 brane, stretched to extreme tenuity by uniform pressure, becomes 

 spherical in shape, and receives, so far as possible, all the cytoplasm 

 from below, ready for conversion into spores. 



That we have hit upon the correct solution of our problem is, in 

 this case, further evidenced by the circumstance that sometimes the 

 surface-tension at the base begins to lessen before all the spore- 

 plasm has reached the summit and, equilibrium attained, part of 

 the more vital endosarc remains below, lodged in the hollow stem. 

 Here, with such success as may be, spore formation takes place as 

 in the camera above, and the discerning taxonomist then writes, 

 " stipe stuffed with spores, cells, capillitial threads, etc." 



Such are some of the ways of the slime-mould, some of the 

 devices by which it uses earth's various forces and conditions. 

 The botanist tells us what he can see, viz., what his favorites can 

 do, and possibly why they do it;'the man of hydrostatics tells us 

 how, once started, they effect their wonders ; but of the molecular 

 energy which still, over and over again, sends flood to fructifica- 

 tion, and fruiting back again to flood, by constant, predetermined 

 ways and paths, we still say little ; that remains no doubt the gen- 

 eral resultant of all those multifarious actions, reactions, attrac- 

 tions and repellings, which everywhere condition the manifestation 

 of what we know and feel as life, and know and say no more. 



State University of Iowa, 

 Iowa City, Iowa 



