1 5 2 M YXOMYCE TES 



30. Capillitium growing from numerous points in the sporangial wall. 



LACHNOBOLUS. 

 Capillitium issuing from the interior of the stipe. 31. 



31. Capillitium forming a dense net- work, without free extremities. 



ARCYRIA. 



Capillitium forming a net-work bearing numerous short acute free 

 branches. HETEROTRICHIA. 



32. Capillitium arising from the base of the sporangium or the interior of 



the stipe. 33. 



Capillitium free within the sporangia, forming elaters. 34. 



33. Spiral markings of Capillitium parallel and conspicuous. 



HEMIARCYRIA. 



Surface of Capillitium marked by a system of branching veins which 

 appear at the apices as irregular spirals. CALONEMA. 



34. Spiral markings of Capillitium parallel and conspicuous. TRICHIA. 

 Surface of Capillitium marked with irregular spirals. OLIGONEMA. 



The slime-moulds are a strictly intermediate group of organisms. 

 In their spore-producing stage they resemble the fungi, but they 

 are not true fungi. In their vegetative or growing stage they re- 

 semble certain of the protozoans, but they are not true animals. 



It is interesting to note, however, that there are several series 

 of forms of living things connecting the slime-moulds with various 

 other low groups of plants and animals. Connecting links mul- 

 tiply themselves as we continue to investigate the simplest forms 

 of life. We have a series of forms which have been brought to 

 light by an American botanist which seem to connect the slime 

 moulds with certain of the bacteria, and a new order of organisms 

 has been founded as the result of these investigations.* The slime 

 moulds, too, show affinities to some of the Chytridiales parasitic on 

 various diatoms and various filamentous algae. It is claimed by 

 one who has been a diligent student of the slime-moulds, that in 

 certain species he has seen definite attempts at the formation 

 of mycelium, and he regards them as showing some distant 

 affinities to the true moulds. On the animal side we have a 

 series of forms that intergrade almost as perfectly toward distinct- 

 ive animal types. One, which Haeckel described as Protomyxa, 



* Cf. Thaxter, On the Myxobacteriaceae, a new order of Schizomycetes. 

 Bot. Gaz. 17 : 389-406. PL 22-25. 1892. Also 18 : 29, 30. 1893, and 

 23= 395-4". PI- jo, ji. 1897. 



