THE MYXOMYCETES. 73 



THE M Y X j\I Y C E T E S .* 



BY W. n. GROVE B.A., 



Hon. Si'i\ Binniuiihiuii Xaluml Hi.'<tnrii and MicwiropiraJ Slorirti/. 



The group of organisms naniecl Myxomycetes,-f- or Myxogastres, 

 constitutes a curious debatable land, concerning the nature of which 

 the most diverse opinions have been and continue to be expressed. 

 They form one of the groups which Haeckel united to form his new 

 sub-kingdom— the Protista — which was intended to embrace all those 

 simple forms of life in which the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms 

 approach one another. His object in instituting this arrangement was 

 to get over the acknowledged difficulty of distinguishing between what 

 of these are animals and what are plants. But, as Saville Kent lately,* 

 and long l)efore him Professor Huxley, ;i pointed out, he gets over the 

 difficulty in a curious way. He proposes that, instead of having one 

 line of demarcation to puzzle over, we shall in future have two, namely, 

 that between undoubted animals and the Protista, and that between 

 the Protista and undoubted plants. This, however, would not be an 

 objection to his classiflcation if it could be pi'oved on other grounds to 

 be desirable ; for the (juestion is not solely what course will be the 

 easiest for us, but what will most truly represent the facts. Some of 

 his proposed Protista, as the Diatoms, the Sponges, the Rhizopoda, 

 the Noctilucas, have now had their position definitivel}' settled one 

 way or the other. Others, such as Englena, are still perhaps xuhjudire, 

 and, since Saville Kent has made his recent and determined attack 

 upon them, thdBMyxomycetes must now be considered to belong to the 

 same doubtful category. 



On inquiry into the facts known concerning this group, it will be 

 apparent that the settlement of the question is by no means easy when 

 all things are taken into consideration. There are, of course, three 

 possible conclusions open to us : We may decide that the Myxomycetes 

 are animals ; or that they are plants ; or that they are the former at 

 one period of their existence, and the latter at anotliei-. The last- 

 named possibility, however strange it may ajipear, must not be 

 overlooked, since it is evident that tlie belief in the fundamental 

 distinction of the two classes of living things, founded, as it was origi- 

 nally, upon an accpiaintance oidy with the higher forms, has of late 

 years received many a rude and, it may be, fatal shock. It is easy to 

 denounce such a conclusion as the refuge of timidity ; it is another 

 thing to pi'ove that the dividing line in Nature is really an impassable 

 one. The mycologists of this countrj' have long made up their minds 

 in favour of the truly vegetable nature of the group, and most of them 



"■' Read before tlie Hinniiifjliaui Natural History and Microscopical Soeietv. 

 January 'iith, 1S8-J. 



t I.e.. Slime-fuuKi. 



t " Manual of the Inftisoria," p. 44. 



S "Quarterly .fournal of Microscopical Science," 18G8, p. 127. 



li" Manual of the Infusovia." pp. 41-.'i, 193, 470-2; and "Popular Science 

 Ueview," A))iil. Issl, 



