CHAPTER XVII. 



MYXOMYCETES. 



The plants under this head belong to the slime-moulds and at first are wholly 

 gelatinous. All the species and genera are small and easily overlooked, yet they 

 are intensely interesting when carefully observed. In the morning you may see 

 a mass of gelatinous matter and in the evening a beautiful net work of threads and 

 spores, the transformation being so rapid. This gelatinous mass is known as 

 protoplasm or plasmodium, and the motive power of the plasmodium has sug- 

 gested to many that they should be placed in the animal kingdom, or called fungus 

 animals. The same is true of Schizomycetes, to which all the bacteria, bacillus, 

 spirillum, and vibrio, and a number of other groups belong. I have only a few 

 Myxomycetes to present. I have watched the development of a number of plants 

 of this group, but because of the scarcity of literature upon the subject I have been 

 unable to identify them satisfactorilv. 



Figure 494. Lycogala epidendrum. 



Lycogala epidendrum. Fr. 



This is called the Stump Lycogala. It is quite common, seeming in a certain 

 stage to be a small puffball. The peridium has a double membrane, papery, per- 



(577) 



