30 
NATURE NOTES. 
G. Lister. The whole are suggestive of a vast amount of work 
from which such condensed results have been drawn, and which 
have a larger expression in their elaborate Monograph of the 
Mycetozoa, also published by the authorities of the British 
Museum. 
It must not be supposed that the labours of Mr. Lister and 
his coadjutor, extensive as they have been, have exhausted the 
subject. It is still “ an open field : ” there is yet abundant room 
for original investigation, many points in the life history of some 
species are obscure or altogether unknown. Some of them have 
the unhappy habit of creeping in the interior of decayed logs, and 
BADHAMIA UTRICULARIS. 
a. Cluster of sporangia x 3^. 
b. Fragment of capillitium and 
spore-cluster x 140 
DIUVMIUM EFFUSUM. 
a. Two sporangia, one entire, the other 
showing columella and capillitium x 12. 
b. Capillitium and fragment of sporangium- 
w'all, with crystals of calcium carbonate 
and two spores x 200. 
not emerging till they are ready to fruit, so that certain phases 
of their life are hidden from view. Further, as their minute 
spores are so easy of distribution, one has always the tantalizing 
hope that some hitherto unrecorded British form may reveal 
itself, as there seems very little limit to their geographical range, 
at least, in temperate and tropical climes. Mr. Lister states that 
specimens of certain species from Central Africa, North America, 
and Britain are identical both in general habits and in micro- 
scopic detail. 
Many portions of Great Britain still await investigation, and 
hitherto it has been noticed that any part that is carefully 
searched has yielded one or more species, previously unrecorded 
for these islands. As examples, it may be mentioned that 
Badhamia nitens is known only from Ilerts and Beds, Cribraria 
violacea from Bucks, Lycogala flavo-fiiscuni from Beds, Physarttm 
citrinnm from Herts and the borders of Beds, Dianema Harveyi from 
Dorset, and Cienkowskia reticulata from Leicestershire.* 
Nothing would be more gratifying to Mr. Lister than that the 
publication of his works should stimulate inquiry in this subject, 
and that the hitherto unexamined portions of this country should 
yield their hidden treasures to some earnest students of the 
Mycetozoa. 
James Saunders. 
* Tlie accompanying illustrations are examples of those given in the Guide ; 
for the explanation of the terms employed we must refer to the book itself, not 
the least important feature of which is its explanatory introduction. 
