THE MYXOMYCETES. 135 



upon the nutriment already elaborated for tliem in vegetable cells, but 

 that they do possess the characteristic power of plants every yeast 

 cell thriving in Pasteur's solution is a living witness. The 

 Myxomycetes ingest solid particles within their protoplasm, but the 

 quantity of nutriment thus obtained must be very small, and the 

 huge masses, which are sometimes so quickly formed and in such 

 unlikely places,' must depend for their growth chiefly upon inorganic 

 material obtained from the water and the air surrounding them. 

 They are, therefore, plants. But it may be urged that, if so, many 

 monads must be plants also. This may be a " logical consequence," 

 but logical consequences have no terror for the seeker after truth. In 

 the discussion of these questions there is no room for prejudices or 

 personalities ; the mind must calmly weigh the evidence, and judge 

 without fear as without favour. 



Eeviewing then the whole question, we decide at once that the position 

 assigned to the Myxogastres by Fries is quite untenable. In fact, 

 nearly the whole of Berkeley's main classification (adopted in the Hand- 

 book) is now out of date, and does not represent the present state of 

 knowledge about the Fungi. Its chief recommendation is that it is 

 easy to understand and apply, but it is in many respects nearly as 

 artificial as was the system of Linnaeus in the Phanerogams. 



Saville Kent's contention also, that these organisms belong to the 

 Protozoa, is as untenable. He lays the whole stress of his argument 

 upon their mode of development, but it is usually allowed that the 

 true position of any organism is determined by the affinities of its 

 adult condition. He says, that " with those mycologists to whom 

 every spore-capsule is necessarily a fungus, and whose vision is sealed 

 to every organism beyond their special line of research, the Mycetozoa 

 will to the end of time be Fungi still," and although it is to be 

 feared that few mycologists will recognise themselves in that very 

 comprehensive definition as those " to whom every spore-capsule is 

 necessarily a fungus," yet they do for the present believe that they are 

 " Fungi still." But they must place them in a position like that 

 assigned to them in the fourth (German) edition of Sachs' Botany, 

 where they are considered as one of the lowest and most aberrant 

 groups of Fungi, forming equally with the lower Algae a point of 

 approach to the Protozoa. 



FIRST LIST OF THP; MYXOMYCETES OF THE XEIGHBODRHOOD OF 

 BIRMINGH.\M. 



The species are arranged according to the method of Rostafinski, 

 witli the synonyms of the "Handbook" added. 

 1. — PJtijscuuin cinercum (Batsch.), Didymium ciiiereum, Fr. Sutton, on a 



decayed, polyporus-covered stump. (See page 99.) Feb. 



2. — P. sinuomnn (Bull.), Aiuiioridiuiii sinuosum, Grev. Sutton park, on a 



dead holly leaf. Sep. 



* The Myxomycetes are found usually on rotten wood or other decaying 

 substances, but they seem to be iudifferent as to the matrix ou which they 

 grow. One species was found on iron which had been heated only a few hours 

 before, another ou a leaden tank, another on cinders. See Berkeley's " Intro- 

 duction to C'ryptogamic botany," p. 310. 



