74 riiK Mvx()^rv('ETKs. 



wovikl be sorry to lose a class of Fungi in which some of the most 

 remarkable and beautiful species are to be found. But at the same 

 time it is quite certain that the position formerly assifjned to them 

 amonj^ the Fungi is no longer tenable, being founded upon a gross 

 disregard of many of their characteristics. 



There is one point which it seems to be essential to consider, but 

 which, so far as I have read, has not been introduced into the con- 

 troversy. If we believe that all animals and plants ai'e genetically 

 connected, that is, ai-e all descended alike from one or more primordial 

 forms of life, we should anticipate not only that there would be a 

 point of contact between the two living kingdoms of Nature, but that 

 there would be several such, and these, perhaps, occurring at parts of 

 our classilication far removed from one another. Botanists know that 

 no large group of plants can be arranged in a linear series so as to 

 display fully their mutual affinities. The species of a large genus, or 

 the genera of a large order, require to be grouped on a plane, or it maj' 

 be even in space of three dimensions, in order to show how they ai"e 

 connected with one another. It is of course understood that in a 

 perfect arrangement the points of junction would really indicate 

 genetic descent. In the same degree, then, at least, or more probably 

 in a greater, ought we to find many points of junction between animal 

 and vegetable forms. While the Fungi merge insensibly in the Algte, 

 and the Algae in the Protozoa, yet there may be a point where the 

 Fungi are connected with the Protozoa immediately, and that is 

 thi'ough this group of Fungi, the Myxomycates. 



OtTTLIXE OF THE CONTROVERSY. 



It will be well to give a short outline of the opinions about the 

 Myxomycetes before proceeding to describe them. Up to and including 

 the year 1857, when Rev. M. J. Berkeley publislied his " Introduction 

 to Cryptogamic Botany," the Myxogastres, as they were then callecl, 

 were placed among the Gastromycetes, their nearest allies being the 

 Ti'ichogastres or Puffballs. At this time nothing was known of their 

 development. In 1859 Dr. de Bary, Professor of Botany at the 

 University of Freiberg, for the first time observed the germination of 

 the spores, and found that, instead of giving rise to a jointed hypha 

 or filamoit, as other Fungi do, they produced an actively locomotive 

 creature resembling a monad. After examining a number of the 

 Myxogastres, and finding the germination of the spores the same in 

 all, he considered that he had grounds for the opinion that these 

 organisms had more affinity with the Protozoa than with Fungi, and 

 jiroposed for them the name Mycetozoa.* These results were independ- 

 ently confirmed by a Polish observer, Cienkowski, and armed with this 

 confirmation, de Bary published, in 1864, a larger work, in which he 

 repeated his belief in the animal nature of these creatures. f About 

 18(38, Haeckel proposed his idea of including these, as well as other 



^ I.e.. Funt,'us-aniiiialfi. 



i This l)elief he has now chaugoil ; "he holds and teaches that they are 

 veritable ))laiiTs." 



