Olive—Cytologiaal Studies on Cemthmyxa. 757 
'Such a section is from an outgrowth fixed at about a similar 
stage of development to those shown in Famintzin and Woro- 
nin’s Figures 6 and 8, in which the strands of protoplasm are 
seen to branch intricately and to anastomose and to form a loose 
reticulum. Figure 2 shows clearly that the protoplasmic por¬ 
tion now occupies a peripheral position, while a poorly stain¬ 
ing material, apparently of a gelatinous, slimy nature, fills the 
center of the cylinder and the interstices between the plasmo- 
dial strands. In Figure 3 is shown a highly magnified portion 
of a plasmodium in a somewhat advanced stage of develop¬ 
ment, with four strands of protoplasm imbedded in a jelly-like, 
slimy matrix. Figure 10 shows a stage near the completion 
of the development of the sporiferous outgrowth, which has 
now grown to a few millimeters in height. The figure repre¬ 
sents a median longitudinal section through the tip of one of 
the cylindrical projections. Obviously the protoplasm has now 
crept entirely to the periphery and has been cut up into num¬ 
berless minute pieces—the young spores, or “protospores,” as 
they may be termed (Harper ’99 1 )—each of which contains at 
this stage, as was shown by the Russian authors, a single nu¬ 
cleus. The middle portion of the section is filled with a form¬ 
less substance—the gelatinous axis. 
It is made quite apparent by a comparison of Figures 1, 2 
and 10 that, as these structures develop, the jelly-like substance 
becomes enormously increased in amount; while, on the other 
hand, the granular protoplasm comes to occupy only a relative¬ 
ly small part of the fructification. Indeed, the whole axis of 
the mature sporophore is formed of slime—a dead substance 
apparently excreted and left behind by the protoplasm in its 
upward and peripheral movement. 
A further point of special interest brought out by a compar¬ 
ison of successive stages is the fact that while at first the retic¬ 
ulum forms a dense mass on the substratum, with thick 
strands and relatively small lacunae, later the reticulum be¬ 
comes loose and expanded, the anastomosing strands small and 
the interprotoplasmic spaces relatively large. Such a phenome¬ 
non is unique among Myxomycetes; for the formation of spo¬ 
rangia and aethalia is apparently attended with a continued 
