1 2 Lister. — Notes on the Plasmodium of 
starch-grain, and which I took to be a piece of dead sclero- 
tium, rush along a swollen vein until it reached a fork, when 
it blocked the passage. Fresh streams immediately broke out 
on each side of the obstruction, but the main current still 
forced its way along the old channel, and in so doing it cut 
away the dark substance as a projecting point of sand is 
swept off by a runnel on a sandy shore. The granular con- 
stituents streamed away along one side of the vein and were 
dispersed in the torrent before it had passed out of the field, 
and all was dissolved before the reverse flow of the current 
set in. Meanwhile the new veins were crossing and re-crossing 
the wide network in every direction, and in a few minutes it 
was converted into a film of rapidly-moving plasmodium 
perforated with small openings, ending in an opaque mass 
which overspread the Stereum- pulp. The stimulus soon 
extended all over the glass box, and in the course of a few 
hours the opposite side as well as some of the pieces of pileus 
at the bottom were overrun with rich waves. 
It was a sight not soon to be forgotten ; the marvellous 
exhibition of such active life in so low an organism was most 
impressive. 
In my experience with the plasmodium of Badhamia the 
flow is usually more rapid in the larger than in the smaller 
veins, which is what one would expect on mere hydraulic 
principles. The flow through the veins continues for about 
a minute and a half to two minutes in one direction, when 
v it comes to a stand and immediately reverses its course; it 
gradually increases in rapidity for about half a minute and 
retains the maximum of speed for a varying length of time, 
when the rate again gradually diminishes. The continuance 
of the flow is longer when in the direction in which the plas- 
modium is moving ; sometimes when the advance is rapid it 
will go on for three minutes before the return current sets in. 
When a wave is spreading over the glass in ordinary con- 
ditions, the maximum flow through the veins is at the rate 
