912 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



But it is not possible to say how far these foreign bodies are utilised as food. 

 Fnligo is known to possess a peptic ferment, and all plasmodia one that 

 dissolves cellulose or cuticularised membranes, e. g. those of macrocysts. 

 It has been shown that they do not all react in the same way towards the 

 same body, e. g. carmine, one taking it up and acting upon it, the other 

 leaving it alone and not acting upon what few particles it does ingulf. 



By De Bary, the greatest authority on the class, the Mycetozoa have 

 long been placed outside the limits of the vegetable kingdom. Whatever 

 resemblances they may possess to various fungi is, he insists, superficial, 

 certain Chytrideae excepted ; but the latter, according to De Bary, have 

 no plasmodia. On the other hand their peculiarities may be found in 

 various undoubted Protozoa. Supposing them to be saprophytic, so 

 e. g. are some Flagellata under certain conditions (p. 842) ; fusion to form 

 plasmodia recurs in some Proteomyxan Monadineae, as to the animal 

 nature of which there can be no doubt; so too in the same. group the 

 formation of sporocysts and chlamydospores (p. 915) ; if the nature of 

 the membrane of the sporocyst be objected on the score that it some- 

 times stains blue with Iodine and Sulphuric acid, indicating the presence 

 of cellulose, similar membranes are met with in some Monadineae (note 2, 

 p. 919), not to mention other Protozoa and animals higher in the scale. 

 There can be little reasonable doubt that the members of the class are 

 Rhizopoda, adapted to a sub-aerial and perhaps saprophytic life. 



The Mycetozoa, as defined above, are termed by Zopf, quoted infra, Eu- 

 mycetozoa ; the Mycetozoa, as he uses the term, include also the Monadineae (p. 

 917). The classification of the Eumycetozoa-=z Mycetozoa, as given by Zopf, is as 

 follows : 



I. Sorophora (=Acrasieae, van Tieghem) : no flagellula phase; pseudo- or 

 aggregation-plasmodia ; the sporocyst replaced by a sorus. Copromyxa, Guttulina^ 

 Dictyostelium, Acrasis, Polyspondylium \ 



II. Endosporea: a flagellula phase; true or fusion-plasmodia ; spores formed 

 in sporocysts ; a capillitium. 



(i) Peritricheae : capillitium peripheral (see p. 910 and note 2), formed by 

 stereonemata. 



(ii) Endotricheae : capillitium traversing the cavity of the sporocyst. 



(a) Stereonemea : capillitium formed by stereonemata, e. g. Calcariaceae. 



(b) Coelonemea : capillitium formed by coelonemata, e. g. Trichiaceae. 



III. Exosporea : a flagellula phase ; true or fusion-plasmodia ; spores borne 

 upon sporophores s. conidiophores (p. 910) : Ceratium, 



De Bary, Comparative Morphology, &c. of the Fungi, Mycetozoa and Bacteria, 

 translated by Garnsey, Oxford, 1887, pp. 421-53; Zopf, Die Pilzthiere oder 

 Schleimpilze, Encyclopaedic der Naturwissenschaften, Breslau, Handbuch des 

 Botanik, iii. pt. 2, 1884. 



1 The Protomyxomyces coprinarius of D. D. Cunningham, Q. J. M. xxi. 1881, which inhabits 

 the intestinal canal and dung of various animals, is a Sorophoran. 



