Relation of Inorganic to Organic Bodies 51 



A great variety of such, that present many modifications 

 in shape, size, structure, and consistence, all survive with us 

 in the Acaryota.* They may be said to consist of a group 

 of colorless or yellow or purplish plants, the Protomycetes, 

 Schizomycetes or Bacteria; or of species referable to a pig- 

 mented group of plants, the Protophyceae, Schizophycese, or 

 Cyanophycese ; and to a colorless assemblage of forms that are 

 usually regarded as primitive animals which we ■v\all term the 

 Acaryozoa. 



Now, if any or most of these are direct, and possibly little 

 altered, descendants from archsean types, we should expect 

 them to show — greatly more than do the more evolved types — 

 relatively strong resisting capacity to high and low tempera- 

 tures; to changing environal liquid media; to drying and des- 

 sicating agencies; to light, heat, and chemical stimuli. They 

 should also, in their apparently primitive species, exhibit a 

 simple cell structure that advances by degrees to increasingly 

 complex examples. The i^caryota as a living group exactly 

 fulfill these requirements, and so we will now look into their 

 comparative morphology, physiology, ecology, and taxonomy. 



Though, as suggested in the last chapter, certain colorless 

 types may be most primitive in structure, it will be convenient 

 for us here to begin with the Protophycese, or popularly the 



* Without desiring to invent or multiply names or systems of classification, 

 the writer considers that some simple table is needed to set forth the relation- 

 ships suggested in this volume. He therefore puts forward the following for 

 approval : 



ACARYOTA 



(Primitive non-nucleate organisms) 

 AcARYOPHYTA (Protobiota) Acaryozoa 



(Primitive plants) (Primitive animals) 



1. Protomycetes 1. Proteomyxa 

 (Colorless non-nucleate plants) 



2. Protophyceae 



(Blue-green non-nucleate plants) 



CARYOTA 



(Nucleate organisms) 

 Caryophyta Caryozoa 



(Nucleate plants) (Nucleate animals) 



1. Thallophyta 1. Protozoa 



2. Bryophyta, etc. 2. Metazoa 



