00llj0p£ JJaturaltsts' JFxdtr Ulltilli, 



*f f T the October meeting of this Club, Dr. Cooke read a paper on an interesting 

 fX^ family of fungi, called Myxogasters. They are found growing on rotten 

 wood, decasdng grasses and ferns. Some are parasitical on plants. One, 

 a Spumaria, is not at all uncommon, in the autumn, enveloping living grass in a 

 mass of foam. In their early stage these fungi are entirely gelatinous, and 

 because they then possess a kind of motion called amoeboid, have been referred to 

 the animal kingdom. When mature, they resemble little puff balls, and appear 

 to consist entirely of a capsule, enclosing a mass of threads and dusty spores. Dr. 

 Rostafinski, a Pole, has given special attention to these fungi, and has written a 

 monograph, in which he proposes a new classification of the family, founded on his 

 observation of their structure. Dr. Cooke, the author of the Handbook of British, 

 Fungi, in his zealous pursuit of natural science, deliberately set himself to learn 

 the Polish language, in order that he might translate this monograph, and per- 

 fectly understand the views of a naturalist who had made the Myxogasters a 

 special study. At the same meeting also, Mr. Woethingtox Smith read an 

 interesting paper upon a fossil fungus discovered by him. 



THE STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE 

 MYXOMYCETES. 



For many years there has been a feeling amongst mycologists that the 

 myxogasters, or myxomycetes, were in great want of revision, and that their 

 classification was not by any means satisfactory. It must be conceded that the 

 venerable Fries, with an extraordinary pre-science of their relationships, classed 

 these, as well as other groups of microscopic forms, with marvellous accuracy, 

 when it is remembered that he did this independently of the microscope, yet it 

 was no longer expedient to ignore internal structure, and no classification would 

 keep pace with the rapid advance of microscopical investigations, which did not 

 take advantage of its revelations. For some years one or two Russian mycologists 

 were working at this group, but the language in which their observations were 

 recorded effectually sealed and preserved them from the mycologists of the rest of 

 Europe. Then Professor de Bary directed his attention to the mycetozoa, as he 

 termed them, but, unfortunately, he associated with his facts an untenable theory, 

 which soon after he had to abandon, finding, at the same time, no little discredit 

 had attached to himself in consequence, and, therefore, he wisely left to a pupil to 

 accomplish the work he had commenced. It is hardly necessary to remark that 



