swollen veins, whose meshes vary both in form and size; or more commonly the whole protoplasmic mass breaks up into little spheroidal heaps which may be sessile directly on the substratum, or may be lifted on tiny stems, stipitate, which may rest in turn upon a common sheet-like film, or more or less continuous net, spreading beneath them all, the _hypothallus_. In any case, each differentiated portion of the plasmodium, portion poorly or well defined, elongate, net-like, spheroidal, elliptical, or of whatever shape, becomes at length a sporangium, spore-case, receptacle for the development and temporary preservation of the spores.[5] The slime-moulds were formerly classed with the gasteromycetous fungi, puff-balls, and in description of their fruiting phase the terms applicable to the description of a puff-ball are still employed, although it will be understood that the structures described are not in the two cases homologous; analogous only. The sporangium of the slime-mould exhibits usually a distinct _peridium_, or outer limiting wall, which is at first continuous, enclosing the spores and their attendant machinery, but at length ruptures, irregularly as a rule, and so suffers the contents to escape. The peridium may be double, varies in texture, color, persistence, and so forth, as will be more fully set forth in the several specific descriptions. The peridium blends with the hypothallus below when such structure is recognizable, either directly, when the sporangium is sessile, or by the intervention of a _stipe_. The stipe may be hollow, may contain coloring matter of some sort, or may even contain peculiar spore-like cells or spores; is often furrowed, and in some cases shows a disposition to unite or blend with the stalks of neighboring sporangia. In many cases the stipe is continued upward, more or less definitely into the cavity of the sporangium, and there forms the _columella_, sometimes simple and rounded, like the analogous structure in the _Mucores_, sometimes as in _Comatricha_, branching again and again in wonderful richness and complexity. Each sporangium is at maturity filled with numerous unicellular spores. These are usually spherical, sometimes flattened at various points by mutual contact; they are of various colors, more commonly yellow or violet brown, are sometimes smooth (?), but generally roughened either by the presence of minute warts, or spines, or by the occurence of more or less strongly elevated bands dividing reticulately the entire surface. The spores are in all cases small 3-20 mu, and reveal their surface characters only under the most excellent lenses.