240 Dr. A. de Bary on the Mycetozoa. 



and were this indication of their cell-nature wanting, the well- 

 determined fact of their production from undoubted cells would 

 furnish evidence to the same effect. In the " swarmers " (figs. 

 6, 8, 19), indeed, no cell-wall, in the usual acceptation of the 

 term, is present; but there is a*nucleus, and they are to be 

 regarded as primordial cells possessing the power of secreting a 

 cell-wall, although for the time that power is held in abeyance. 

 Lastly, the sarcode-cords must be considered as cells, notwith- 

 standing their figure and size, inasmuch as they are derived 

 from the Amoebiform existences, the peculiar properties of which 

 they continue to retain. The same statement holds good of 

 those cell-bodies derived from the coalescence of two or more 

 originally independent cells ; for they are in structure precisely 

 similar to cells derived from the fructifying conjugation in Algae, 

 which proves that, in the strictest sense of the word, a cell may 

 originate from the coalescence of two or more cells. 



It must, however, not be concluded that the sarcode-cords 

 originate in a coalescence of cells by a process of vegetative 

 copulation : on this subject further inquiries are needed. 



The only satisfactory criterion of an animal nature in a doubt- 

 ful organism is to be found in the reception of solid food a 

 property not possessed by any plant or plant- cell. Assuming 

 the correctness of this statement, the Mycetozoa are referable 

 to the animal kingdom ; for solid particles are found within their 

 sarcode-substance, just as in the aquatic and undoubtedly animal 

 Amoebae. Not that the act of prehension has been witnessed ; 

 but the cells of Algae and Fungi and the spores of Mycetozoa 

 have been seen in the interior of the Amoebae of Trichia, Arcyria, 

 and jEthalium. In Lycogala alone have such foreign particles 

 been hitherto sought in vain. 



The evidence that these solid particles serve as food, and are 

 not accidentally enveloped by the mucoid sarcode, as Dujardin 

 affirmed, rests on the same basis in the case of the Amoebiform 

 phases of the Mycetozoa as in that of the true Amoebae; 

 and even should their accidental entrance within the tissue be 

 demonstrated, yet the Mycetozoa would claim a place in the 

 animal kingdom on the ground of their many and great resem- 

 blances to admitted animals, and their slight analogy to any 

 plants. 



The. connexion of Mycetozoa with Gasteromycetes must be 

 severed, since it is founded only on superficial resemblances. 

 They are most similar to the Algal groups of Siphonaea and 

 Saprolegnia3 ; but, although the zoospores of these Algae possess 

 a certain degree of locomotive power and contractility, yet these 

 properties are in them far inferior in intensity to those of the 

 Mycetozoa, and are likewise of comparatively very brief duration. 



