224- 



IvIVING PLANTS 



Fig. 26. — A mycetozoan (Dictydi- 

 UTti cernuum) in its resting state, 

 showing four fruiting stalks attached 

 to a piece of bark. Enlarged ten di- 

 ameters, (After Engler and Prantl.) 



uous and well- 

 known examples 

 are the mycetozo- 

 ans. Many spe- 

 cies of these fun- 

 g u s - a n i m als 

 ( P i 1 z e t hie re) 

 possess a dis- 

 t i n c t nitrog- 

 enous envelope 



about the plasmodium, 

 which by its chemical reac- 

 tion is shown to be non- 

 protoplasmic, and it may 

 be inferred that careful ex- 

 amination will find it pres- 

 ent in most of the species, 

 and that it can be considered 

 as potential or undeveloped 

 in the others. They are, 

 therefore, distinctly animal 

 in their fundamental char- 

 acteristic. Although usu- 

 ally treated in botanical 

 text-books and studied by 

 botanists, they were shown 

 by DeBary, as long ago as Fig.27.-one fruiting 



1864, to have more points stalk from above. En- 

 r- 1 •l^ • ^ larged fifty diameters. 



of agreement with animals (^..^^j^^gj^^^p^^^^^^) 



