I. 



THE SLIME FUNGI. 



The Slime Fungi (Myxomycetes) are mere masses of 

 protoplasm without definite shape. In appearance they 

 resemble some of the Protozoa so much that it is very dif- 

 ficult to distinguish them from the lowest forms of animal 

 life. Their manner of living does not help to decide the 

 question, for their nutrition is neither entirely holophytic 

 nor holozoic, that is to say, neither entirely after the 

 manner of plants, nor entirely after the manner of animals. 

 They live in part by the absorption of solutions of decaying 

 organic matter, i.e., after the manner of saprophytic plants ; 

 in part, by the digestion of particles of solid matter that 

 they have inclosed after the manner of the Amoeba, the 

 lowest of animals. So much do these organisms partake 

 of the nature of both plants and animals, that they are 

 classed as plants by some eminent scientists and, under the 

 name of Mycetozoa, as animals by others equally as well 

 qualified to judge, while still others evade the question by 

 making a third kingdom, that of the Protista, in which 

 these and other doubtful forms are placed. Because of 

 these doubts, and because of the simplicity of their struc- 

 ture, the Slime Fungi are placed by themselves at the low- 

 est point in the scale of classification. 



The Slime Fungi vary in size from forms that must be 

 studied with the microscope up to forms several inches in 

 diameter, as in the large sulphur-colored forms known 

 as Flowers of Tan, the ^Ethalium septicum. They creep 

 about over the substratum on which they grow in a way 

 which resembles alike the movements of Amoebae arid, as 



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