76 The Mycetozoa, and 



between the swarm spores and the large group of protozoa 

 which naturalists generally place in the animal kingdom, 

 and all of which may be said to consist of undifferentiated 

 and naked protoplasm. 



THEIR KELATIONS IN THE PLASMODIUM STAGE. The motor 

 power of the plasmodium seems to recall animal life, but 

 we recollect that there are kindred organisms, like the 

 Diatoms, which are generally regarded as vegetable, and 

 retain a power of movement through life. 



As regards food, it is a familiar fact that, generally 

 speaking, plants feed on inorganic and animals on organic 

 substances. So far as observations have hitherto gone, 

 the food of myxies consists of bacteria, or minute particles 

 of wood or fungi (and, in the case of Badhamia utricularis, 

 of living fungi). No evidence seems to exist to show that 

 they have any power of deriving nutriment from inorganic 

 substances. The mode in which the myxies eject the 

 undigested matter recalls animal rather than vegetable 

 life. In the methods of digestion, therefore, they seem to 

 lean distinctly towards an animal character. 



The movement of the granules of protoplasm in the 

 plasmodium is a phenomenon at least analogous to that 

 found in plants, and even in plants with highly developed 

 cells, but it is not unknown amongst the lower forms 

 which are considered to be animals, for it appears to have 

 been observed in some protista, and especially in the 

 tentacular-like pseudopodia. 



In the plasmodium condition, the relationship of the 



