THE MYXOMYCETES OR MYCETOZOA ; ANIMALS OR PLANTS? 109 
developmental phenomena being recorded, as duly acknow- 
ledged, on the strength only of the two Continental authorities. 
More recently, however, recognizing that greater satisfaction 
would be derived from a personal investigation of these develop- 
mental data, a variety of species have been carefully culti- 
vated with the most substantial results. In addition to the two 
species above named, the writer has been supplied by Mr. 
Thomas Brittain, a well-known mycologist of the Manchester 
district, with authentic examples of Lycogala epidendron, Stemo - 
nit is fusca, Diaclma elegans, and Physarum tussilaginis. Spores 
of all were sown in distilled water on ordinary slides, covered 
with thin glass, and kept, when not under direct examination, 
in a moist chamber. These were now examined from day to 
day and hour by hour. In some instances, where the spores 
had been preserved for too long an interval, germination failed, 
but in other cases, notably Badhamia inaurata , Stemonitis fusca , 
and Physarum tussilaginis , an interval of from three or four days 
to a week has sufficed for the rewaking of their latent vitality 
and the liberation of the contained germs. These germs in 
every instance agreed substantially with the figures and descrip- 
tions given by De Bary and Cienkowski, — the one form, Stemo- 
nitis fusca, illustrating a type examined by the first-named writer, 
while the two others represent species of which the develop- 
mental phases have not been previously described. 
The phenomena exhibited, as observed by the present 
writer, while in all cases identical, may be preferentially 
recorded of Physarum tussilaginis, illustrated by the ac- 
companying PI. IY., figs. 30 to 55. In this species the 
spores being of large relative size, — 1 — 2000" to 1 — 1500", 
those of the other forms averaging but little more than one 
half these dimensions, — are admirably adapted for cultivation. 
The power chiefly employed in their more minute examination 
was a T Vth inch objective by Gundlach, with a magnification of 
from 600 to 1200 diameters ; a lower power, £ inch, sufficing for 
taking a more general numerical survey. So soon as within 
seven hours after wetting the spores, or indeed directly follow- 
ing their deposition on the slide, an examination revealed the 
companionship of innumerable Bacteria, at present quiescent, 
with a more or less abundant sprinkling of spores other than 
those of Physarum, and of considerably smaller size. The pre- 
sence of these adventitious elements immediately, and not un- 
necessarily, suggested the desirability of precaution in the regis- 
tration of subsequent events. The spores specially sown were 
found, under high magnification, to consist of an outer wall of 
considerable thickness, finely echinulate externally, and ex- 
hibiting, by transmitted light, a dark amber or chitinous color- 
ation. The protoplasmic contents rarely entirely filled the 
