60 THE NORTHERN MICROSCOPIST. 

THE MYXOGASTERS. 
| ia Myxogasters or Mycetozoa, of all fungi can claim only the 
most distant relationship to ordinary members of the vegetable 
world, and on this account several eminent naturalists have been 
inclined to place them in the animal kingdom, under the designa- 
tion of Mycetozoa. I think, however, with Berkeley and Brogniart, 
that they should form a separate family—Peridinine. 
Being destitute of thecz or basidiz, they first appear in the form 
of a pulp or soft, milky mucus, white as a rule, though sometimes 
coloured, and which sticks to the fingers when touched, like cream. 
This amorphous pulp or rudimentary mycelium is converted by 
rapid transformations into isolated peridia in groups or adnate, of 
variable form or colour. These peridia are filled with diffluent 
matter, at first opaline, but soon coloured, and eventually become 
flocculose or pulverulent by the formation of capillitia, or elaters 
and spores. 
A Myxogaster is usually an agglomeration or colony of indi- 
viduals living in company, separate or communal, but in one 
common nest (Hypothallus, Plasmodium or simply Mycelium) 
consisting of a very frail membraniferous bed, silky or glazed, 
opaque or pellucid, generally like a soft couch of albumen or gum, 
or else of branching anastomosed or reticulated threads. 
As the substratum gains consistency the conceptacles may be 
seen forming in the amorphous substance after the following man- 
ner:—(1) In some species a single membranous peridium is 
formed enveloped in a furfuraceous covering (Lycogala, Didymium 5) 
2. In composite species a thick glazed crust grows over the whole 
mass holding in solution a large quantity of salts of lime, after 
which the interior divides into cells, which are so many connate 
or united peridia. (3) In free species, or those not connected 
with each other, save by a peculiar mycelium ( Zrichia), ramified 
(Physarum) or reticulated (Diachea ), each individual of the group 
possesses a peridium of its own. 
The peridium is composed of a membranous wall papyraceous 
or scarious, often very thin, delicate, fragile, and fugacious, appear- 
ing to be the result of the concretion of the substratum. ens 
sessile or stipitate, spherical or ovoid, closed or open. It is bare 
or enveloped with a crustaceous covering, which is either furfur- 
aceous or pruinose. Its elegant form gives the appearance of so 
many pearls, eggs of insects, or berries; it Is generally coloured 
and brilliant, but when it arrives at maturity it takes an iridescent 
tint and shines with a metallic lustre quite peculiar to this group 
of fungi. 
The dehiscence and dissemination of the spores also present 
