Notes on the Plasmodium of Badhamia utri- 
cularis and Brefeldia maxima. 
BY 
ARTHUR LISTER. 
With Plates I and II. 
T HE study of the plasmodium of Mycetozoa has received 
considerable attention on the Continent, and the account 
of the life-history of these t remarkable organisms given by 
De Bary in the last edition of his ‘ Comparative Morphology 
and Biology of Fungi, Mycetozoa and Bacteria,’ as well as 
those by Zopf and Sachs, afford an interesting view of their 
habits and properties ; but the investigations recorded by 
these authorities appear to have been chiefly directed to 
Fuligo varians and various species of Physarum , and in 
following the development from spore to sporangium of 
Chondrioderma difforme. 
Although the plasmodia of many Mycetozoa may be 
induced to crawl on a glass plate, where their rhythmic 
streaming may be observed, yet the comparatively short 
time that elapses between their emerging from hidden recesses 
in the substance of rotten wood, and their changing into 
sporangia, renders the greater number of them unsuitable 
for prolonged examination ; none that I have met with is 
so favourable in this respect as that of Badhamia utricularis , 
which wanders for the most part over the surface of dead 
stumps, and can easily be cultivated in glass boxes or under 
bell-jars. Another advantage in dealing with the plasmodium 
of Badhamia is the facility with which it can be thrown into 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. II. No. V, June 1888.] 
B 
