280 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



For some time the hypothesis appeared to maintain 

 its ground ; it was accepted, and advocated in all direc- 

 tions, by men in all departments of biological science, 

 except, perhaps, those who would be expected to be 

 best acquainted with the subject — the mycologists — 

 who did not accept the dictum of the theorists, and 

 did not expunge the Myxomycetes from the place they 

 had so long occupied, in close relationship with 

 fungi, although some zoologists proceeded to annex 

 them to the animal kingdom. Undoubtedly, as will 

 be hereafter seen, whilst the vegetative stage has no 

 analogue in the vegetable world, so the reproductive 

 stage has no parallel in the animal world. To quote 

 the most recent authority, " In the Myxogastres the 

 life of an individual consists, under normal conditions, 

 of two very sharply defined stages ; first, the vegeta- 

 tive phase, concerned with functions tending towards 

 the wellbeing of the individual ; second, the repro- 

 ductive phase, concerned entirely with the continua- 

 tion of the species."^ It is shown also, in the same 

 work, that the whole theory of animal nature is based 

 upon the phenomena of the vegetative phase, which 

 are thus summarized : " The spores on germination 

 give origin to one, two, or more naked cells, which 

 possess the power of movement due to the protrusion 

 of pseudopodia, or the presence of a cilium ; these 

 cells are known as sivarm-ceUs. The swarm-cells 

 possess a nucleus, multiply by bipartition, and 

 eventually coalesce to form a plasuiodium, in the 

 following manner. After the production of numerous 



' George Massee, "A Monograph of the Myxogastres," p. 3. 

 (London, 1892.) 



