290 Lister. — On CJiondrioderma differ me 
The form and character of the plasmodia were the same as 
given by Professor Marshall Ward, and so well described by 
him in the volume before mentioned (PI. V). 
In a cultivation in a hanging drop, fifty-two small plasmodia 
were counted distributed over the convex surface four days 
after sowing the spores in a drop of rain-water. In this 
experiment it was noticed that the young plasmodia exerted 
an attracting influence over the surrounding swarm-cells in 
a more evident manner than under the cover-slip. The 
coalescence of amoeboid swarm-cells was observed as in the 
former case, but no union of plasmodia was seen to occur ; 
several of the latter became encysted with a double mem- 
branous envelope of a faintly yellow tint, somewhat corre- 
sponding with those described by Zopf \ 
Although no sporangia were produced in these experiments, 
in which only pure water was used, in six subsequent cultiva- 
tions in hanging drops, when portions of the mucilaginous 
testa of cress or plantain seeds were added, well-formed 
sporangia with characteristic capillitium and spores made their 
appearance in about a fortnight after sowing the spores. 
In tracing the development of these sporangia the following 
observations were made. The spores hatched the day after 
sowing. The plasmodia began to form on the fourth day ; 
they increased in size during the three following days, but 
retained the same nearly hyaline appearance as at first ; they 
were slightly turbid with faint protoplasmic particles. On the 
seventh day minute refracting granules of calcareous matter 
appeared for the first time ; on the eleventh day the calcareous 
granules were larger and more numerous, showing conspicu- 
ously in the streaming currents ; on about the fourteenth day 
a sporangium was formed, usually at some point where it was 
exposed to the air, and in this case the calcareous wall was 
fully developed ; some minute sporangia which formed under 
water had no calcareous wall or capillitium though the spores 
were perfectly normal. 
The calcareous matter is discharged from the plasmodium 
1 Encyk. der Nat; Wiss. iste Abt. 41 Lief., p. 170. 
