Some Questions which they Suggest. 73 



Attempts have been made to show that different sections 

 of the myxies correspond with different sections of fungi : 

 the common myxies being treated as of the G-asteromycetie 

 type ; the Dictyostelium as of the Mucorine type ; and, 

 according to some writers, the Cer atomy xa mucida as of 

 the Hydnum type and the Ceratomyxa porioides of the 

 Polyporus type ; and from this supposed correspondence 

 of type it has been suggested as probable that other types 

 of fungi will be found to be represented amongst myxies, 

 and that so we shall have two parallel series of fungi ; the 

 difference in each case being that the one is characterized 

 by a mycelium of hyphse, and the other by a plasmodium. 

 This view appears to us to be fanciful, and to slur the 

 really broad line of distinction between fungi and myxies. 

 More rational would seem to be the view put forward by 

 one of the latest writers on classification, who has formed 

 of these little organisms one of the four primary divisions of 

 the vegetable kingdom, and made for them a place of equal 

 rank with the whole of the phanerogamous plants ; so 

 distinct a position scarcely seems excessive to mark the 

 singularity of their structure and life-history. In fact, 

 one of the many interesting points about this group of 

 organisms is the extent to which they stand alone ; the 

 difficulty of finding any other creatures to which they 

 stand in the relation either of descendants or ancestors. 

 "The mycetozoa," says De Bary, "show only a slight 

 agreement, either in the general course of their develop- 

 ment, or in the characteristic features of its separate stages, 

 with organisms which are of undoubted vegetable origin, 



