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Note on Mycetozoa. 

 By J. Slade, F.G.S. 

 {Read May 21st, 1897.) 



At the Soiree held in the beginning of the present month 

 (May) some objects were shown belonging to a group of organisms 

 known as Mycetozoa. These objects are not new to science, but 

 as there seemed to be some misunderstanding in the minds of 

 those who saw them as to what they were, it has been deemed 

 desirable, at an early opportunity, to bring them before the Club 

 and explain what they are. They are too frequently spoken of 

 as Fungi, but this, as we shall presently see, is not their nature. 

 There are about a hundred and seventy British species already 

 described : these, with foreign species, brings the number up to 

 about four hundred. 



There is perhaps no group of organisms so easily within reach, 

 which offers at the present so rich a reward to microscopic re- 

 search. The harvest is abundant, but at present the labourers 

 are few. 



You have but to glance at the drawings before you, kindly 

 lent by Mr. J. W. Reed, to see what beautiful objects they are ; 

 and although the same cannot be said of the diagrams, even they 

 may be of some service in another way. 



Fries, as far back as 1829, clearly denned the group; and De 

 Bary, in his great work* in 1864, carefully worked out their life- 

 history. Since De Bary's time much has been done to increase 

 our knowledge of these organisms. The Germans have studied 

 them with their usual assiduity, and in England we have a 

 monograph by Mr. Massee, of Kew, another by Mr. Lister, with 

 a " Guide " and collections in the British Museum. 



Unfortunately, as in other departments of Natural History so 

 in this, the change in name has been an obstacle to their more 



* " Comparative Morphology and Biology of Fungi, Mycetozoa, and 

 Bacteria," by De Bary. Translation. Clarendon Press, 1887. 



