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TRANSLATIONS. 



The Mycetozoa. — A contribution towards the knowledge of 

 the lowest Animals. By Dr. Anton De Bary. 



Dr. De Bary's object in the above paper, is to prove that 

 the tribe of organisms, heretofore brought together under the 

 general name of Myxogastric fungi, are not fungi j that they 

 are, in fact, not vegetables, but animals. The author does not 

 undertake, at present, to fix exactly their systematic position, 

 but he assigns them a place provisionally, between .the Rhizo- 

 pods and the Gregarinae. Should his views be ultimately esta- 

 blished, the Zoologists will (as M. Tulasne has remarked), 

 thereby receive compensation in respect of the Corallines, 

 which the botanists have appropriated ; but we cannot help 

 thinking, that a great deal more evidence will be required, 

 and much more discussion will have to be gone through, 

 before botanists will be content to assent to the transfer of 

 the Myxogastric fungi to the animal kingdom. 



Dr. De Bary's paper is of great length, and we may add, of 

 great interest, but want of space forbids us from attempting 

 anything like a complete analysis of it. At the same time, 

 so far as regards the arguments in favour of the animal 

 nature of the creatures in question, it will be quite possible, 

 in a short space, to give a summary of the author's contention. 

 To those readers of the ' Microscopical Journal' who are 

 altogether unacquainted with the Myxogasteres, we should 

 strongly recommend a careful perusal of the entire paper, 

 premising that such perusal would be much facilitated by a 

 previous reference to Mr. Berkeley's excellent remarks upon 

 the subject in his introduction to Cryptogamic Botany. 



Dr. De Bary divides his paper into six chapters, or parts. 

 The first of these contains some general remarks upon the 

 structure of the tissue, and on the fructification in fungi; 

 and the second, an account of the peculiar characteristics of 

 a certain number of the more important genera into which 

 the Myxogasteres have been divided, such genera having been 

 founded principally upon the structure of the ripe spore-cases. 

 In speaking of the elaters or spiral threads in the genus 



