MYXOMYCETES. 



Slime moulds. Whole plant at first gelatinous. Mycelium 

 often vein-like. Some authors do not consider those veins a 

 mycelium, merely a part of the plasmodium, which, when 

 mature, forms a mass of spores and threads, at length bursting. 

 The ripe plant is so similar to the group Gastromycetes that 

 M. C. Cooke, Rev. Berkeley, and other authors, had them 

 placed under that group. This is a wonderful group ; 

 wonderful not for size and beauty but for their peculiar mor- 

 phology, from a mass of slime in early morn to a beautiful 

 network of threads and spores in the evening. 



Mycologists could not agree as to whether to place it under 

 the animal or vegetable kingdom. DeBary was of the opinion 

 at one time that it belonged to a low order of infusoria, but he 

 soon changed his mind and placed them in a fungal group 

 (Myxomycetes). Unfortunately these beautiful objects of 

 creation are unknown save to a privileged few who have, by 

 the aid of a microscope, become acquainted with them. As 

 said before, in their vegetative condition they consist of naked, 

 motile, undifferentiated masses of protoplasm called Plasmo- 

 dium. This motile power of the plasmodium has deceived 

 former naturalist to place them in the animal kingdom. 



The fruit consists of an outside wall enclosing a mass of 

 spores. If irregular in form it is called a plasmodiocarpa ; if 

 regular, sporangia. A number of sporangia enclosed in an 

 outside covering or peridium forms an aethalium. Sporangia 

 may be sessile or furnished with a stipe, the stipe protruding 

 into the chamber of the sporangium, forming a columella ; 



threads forming a network is called, same as in the Lycoper- 



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