INTRODUCTORY 9 



Myxogastres. In 1833, Link, having more prominently in 

 mind the minuteness of most of the species collocated by 

 Fries, and perceiving perhaps more clearly even than the great 

 mycologist the entire independence of the group, suggested 

 as a substitute for the sub-order Myxogastres^ the order 

 MyxomyceteS) Slime-moulds. Link's decision passed unchal- 

 lenged for nearly thirty years. The Slime-moulds were set 

 apart by themselves ; they were fungi without question and, of 

 course, plants. 



If the hypha is the morphological test of a fungus, then it 

 is plain that the Slime-moulds are not fungi. No myxomycete 

 has hyphae, nor indeed anything at all of the kind. Never- 

 theless, there are certain parasitic fungi (Ckytridiaca), whose 

 relationships plainly entitle them to a place among the hyphate 

 forms, that have no hyphae whatever in the entire round of 

 their life history. These are, however, exceptional cases and 

 really do not bear very closely on the question at issue. 



Physiologically, the fungi are incapable of independent 

 existence, being destitute of chlorophyl. In this respect the 

 Slime-moulds are like the fungi ; they are nearly all sapro- 

 phytes and absolutely destitute of chlorophyl. Unfortunately 

 this physiological character is identically that one which the 

 fungi share with the whole animal world, so that the startling 

 inquiry instantly rises, are the Slime-moulds plants at all ? 

 Are they not animals ? Do not their amoeboid spores and 

 plasmodia ally them at once to the amoeba and his congeners, 

 to all the monad, rhizopodal world ? This is the position 

 suggested by De Bary in 1858, and adopted since by many 

 distinguished authorities, among whom may be mentioned 

 Saville Kent, of England, and Dr. William Zopf, of Germany 

 (Die Pilzthiere, 1885). Rostafinski, who was a pupil of 

 De Bary's, and whose monograph on the Slime-moulds 

 was written under De Bary's supervision, adopts the title 

 " Mycetozoa," suggested by his master as indicating a closer 

 relationship with the animal world, but really has little to say 

 in regard to the matter. 



