ABSTRACT
Until the work of de Bary nothing was known about the development of Mycetozoa further than that they appeared as a slimy mass from which the sporangia were formed. He made a short report (1) on the development of the zoospores from the spores at the “Naturforscherversammlung,” in Göttingen, in 1854, which was followed by his other publications (2, 3). He speaks (8) of keeping portions of plasmodia in glass dishes containing water, or on slides, but they died in a few days without forming sporangia. Spores of Æthalium septicum, planted on moistened tan on the 2nd of May, showed at the beginning of July colourless plasmodia, which continued through July without further development. Another culture of spores of the same plasmodium, planted the 13th of August, developed many zoospores, and on the 8th of October plasmodia were seen. Spores of Lycogala, planted in a dish containing water and decaying pine-wood, developed zoospores within twenty-four hours ; about the fourteenth day there were plasmodia present, which at the end of a fortnight had died without forming sporangia. He also planted spores of Stemonitis obtusata on decaying pine-wood, and found plasmodia on the fourteenth day, but they did not develop further. De Bary was unable to determine whether the plasmodia developed from a single zoospore or by the fusion of a number of zoospores.
