CYTOLOGY OF THE MYXOMYCETES. 85 



like properties. With the discovery of the plasmodium, opinion 

 changed and the term Mycetozoa was introduced. Even now 

 there is absolutely no concensus of opinion on the subject of their 

 relationships. Coulter, Barnes and Cowles ('10, p. i) place them 

 tentatively among the first of the Thallophytes. Chamberlain 

 ('15, p. 152) groups them with the Schizophytes. Torrend 1 and 

 Schintz 2 conclude that the Myxomycetes are related to Fungi 

 rather than to animals. And finally Osborn ('n, p. 339) 

 Schwartz ('14, p. 238), Harper ('oo, p. 235) and others associate 

 them with the Plasmodiophoraceae, Chytrideae and Acrasieae; 

 while Maire and Tison 3 relate them to the Sporozoa, Elliott 4 

 to animals generally, by reason of their feeding reactions, and 

 Parker and Haswell ('97, p. 61) classify them as intermediate 

 between the Rhizopoda and the Mastigophora. 



We may summarize their plant-like features as follows: In the 

 first place they form brilliantly colored fungous-like masses 

 strongly suggestive of true fungi. The capillitial threads which 

 are found in the sporangia frequently play an important part 

 in the dispersal of the spores and remind one of the elaters 

 of liverworts. If Harper and Dodge ('14, p. 9) are correct, 

 however, there would appear to be a closer analogy be- 

 tween the capillitium and the protozoan endoskeleton, since 

 they believe them both to be formed by a process of intraproto- 

 plasmic secretion. They bear also a certain superficial resem- 

 blance to the puff-balls, which have likewise a mass of spores 

 supported by a capillitium-like framework and contained in a 

 sporangium. Pinoy ('08, p. 630) records a sexual dimorphism in 

 Didymium which reminds him of the condition in Mucor as 

 described by Blakeslee. Moreover the supposed presence of 

 cellulose in the sporangium walls, the spore walls and the cyst 

 walls of the sclerotium indicate a plant affinity. And finally the 

 possession of well-defined spores is cited as evidence that they 

 should be regarded as plants. 



Yet they apparently resemble animals just 35 closely and for 

 this reason they have been called "Mycetozoa" (fungus-animals), 



1 Reviewed in Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc., 1910, p. 221. 



2 Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc., 1914, p. 292. 



3 Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc., 1909, p. 626. 



4 Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc., 1917, p. 500. 



