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reasoned into lack of homology, the pseudoplasmodium and plasmodium 
may not correspond in type of structure. 
To DeBary’s oft-quoted, but rather ambiguous statement of his esti- 
mate with regard to the position of the Mycetozoa is due much of the un- 
settled condition of the group. He says: “I have since the year 1858 
placed the Myzromycetes under the name Mycetozoa outside the limits of 
the vegetable kingdom, and I still consider this to be their true position.” 
Strangely, however, he included the Mycetozoa in all his subsequent botan- 
ical works, as if he lacked the courage of his convictions; and other 
writers of text-books have continued to do the same. 
DeBary based his views on his belief that the Wycetozoa in their evolu- 
tionary development are the terminal members of a series of forms. In 
his opinion they, like the puff-balls, do not connect with any higher group. 
He contented himself, then, with seeking for their possible affinities with 
the inferior forms from which they must have proceeded. Even in this 
search, he found it impossible to establish exact homologies, for he limited 
himself to strict resemblances in form, structure, and mode of life. All 
agree with his conclusions concerning the original starting point; that we 
are led by a very short step to the naked Amebe of the animal kingdom. 
The Amebe are organisms having the amceboid movements of the swarm- 
cells of the Mycetozoa, which multiply similarly by successive division, but 
which do not form plasmodia or aggregations in any way. Indeed, in 
Sappinia, which Dangeard places among the Acrasice, the Amebe do ag- 
gregate at the ends of straws. Guttulina, one of the Acrasiee, is really a 
naked Amoeba, differing only in the aggregation of its microcysts into 
heaps, or sori. 
Biitschli has pointed out the probability of the starting point of the 
naked amcebe being groups of very simple organisms known as the 
Flagellate; and since the swarm-cells of the Mycetozoa are furnished with 
cilia and have all the characters of the simpler Flagellate, DeBary goes 
back to these forms as the converging point of the plant and animal 
kingdoms. 
Lister has established beyond a doubt the fact that certain of the 
Mycetozoa have the power of digesting solid food. In his experiments on 
the plasmodium of Badhamia, he proved that it had a remarkable power 
of discriminating between different foods. He suggests also that another 
species, Chondrioderma difforme, probably uses bacteria as its principal 
