SLIME FUNGI 157 
have held regarding them, Myxromycetes signifying 
“slime-fungi,’ while Mycetozoa means “fungus- 
animals.” These remarkable organisms, of which 
over 180 species are found in the British Isles, begin 
life as tiny wind-borne spores. Under suitable con- 
ditions of moisture and heat, the spore swells, its 
wall cracks, and the contents—a tiny globule of proto- 
plasm—creep out, develop a little tail or flagellum, 
which by lashing about propels the pear-shaped 
swarm-cell through the drop of water in which it 
began life. The organism feeds by catching bac- 
teria and other minute particles of organic matter, 
which are conveyed into the interior of the little mass 
of protoplasm and digested. The swarm-cells increase 
in number by division, and ultimately unite in pairs 
to form a plasmodium, which may, by union with 
other plasmodia, eventually attain a quite large size. 
In this naked protoplasmic mass a very remarkable 
rhythmic movement is set up, the granular proto- 
plasm of the interior streaming rapidly along certain 
channels for about 14 minutes, when the motion is 
reversed and it streams in the opposite direction. 
The whole mass now creeps about in moist places, 
usually in the form of a network of branching veins, 
feeding as it goes, usually on dead vegetable matter. 
When fully developed the plasmodium creeps out 
into some more open spot and transforms itself into 
masses of spores enclosed in spore-cases, which vary 
much in different genera as regards size, shape, and 
colour, and are often borne on delicate stalks. When 
ripe, the spore-cases, or sporangia, open, and the 
spores are liberated into the air to be dispersed by 
wind and eventually to begin growth on their own 
