io8 Natural History Bulletin. 



From the fact that Dr. Schrceter still includes the Slime- 

 moulds in his account of the fungi of Silesia and contributes 

 a description of the same organisms to Engler and Prantl's 

 "Pflanzenfamilien," we may conclude that to Dr. Schroeter, 

 at least, Slime-moulds are plants. 



Confirmatory of this view we may now call attention to 

 one or two facts which the foregoing description has already 

 brought to light. In the first place the formation of cellulose 

 cell-walls in the case of the resting plasmodia is certainly not 

 suggestive of the animal kingdom, the Tunicates to the con- 

 trary notwithstanding. Again, although, as has been said, the 

 reproductive apparatus as a whole is not homologous with 

 similar structures among the fungi, yet the formation of spores 

 is entirely consistent with plant behavior; and the subsequent 

 coalescence of the individual swarm-spores is not unlike the 

 assembling of similar motile cells in the Hydrodiciyece confes- 

 sedly plants. This resemblance is the more suggestive if we 

 take into account the acrasic forms [Acrasicce'^ described by 

 Brefeld, in which the amceboid bodies do not blend or fully 

 coalesce to form the plasmodium but simply associate them 

 selves together (aggregatplasmodium). 



The fact is, the Myxomycetes constitute an exceedingly well 

 defined group and anything we may say as to their relationships 

 in either direction is in the light of present knowledge, prob- 

 lematical. Dr. Zopf's association of the Slime-moulds and 

 monads appears forced, at best; and when it comes to the con- 

 sideration of the former, their systematic and even morphologi- 

 cal treatment, he is compelled to deal with them by themselves 

 under headings such as "Eumjxetozoen," "Hohere Pilzthiere," 

 etc. One rather commends the discreetness of the lamented 

 De Bary, whose painstaking investigations first called attention 

 to the uncertain position of the group. After, reviewing the 

 results of all his labors De Bar}^ does not quite relegate the 

 Slime -moulds to the zoologist for further consideration but 

 simply saj'S (Mycetozoa, 1873); — "From naked amoebae, 

 v.'ith which the Mycetozoa {^ — Myxomycetes') are connected 



