CHAPTEE VI 



THE MYXOMYCETES 1 



OUR last type represents a group of organisms lying on 

 the borderland of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 

 It may be doubted whether they have any right to a 

 place in a book on botany, but we give them the benefit 

 of the doubt because of their great scientific interest ; 

 for in them we can study living protoplasm and its 

 behaviour on a greater scale than in any other creatures. 

 Myxomycetes, unlike Fungi and Bacteria, are of no 

 practical importance, and are probably known to very 

 few people except naturalists ; yet they are common 

 enough, easily visible to the naked eye, and in some 

 conditions extremely conspicuous. 



In the vegetative state a typical Myxomycete consists 

 of a mass of naked protoplasm, sometimes several inches 

 in extent, which creeps slowly about, on the surface of 

 dead leaves or bark or wood. Such immense aggrega- 

 tions of living matter in so simple a form are quite 

 unknown in any other group of organisms. 



When reproduction is about to take place, the creature 

 completely changes its character, gradually ceases to be 

 active, and converts itself into a collection of fruits of 

 rather complex structure, in which the microscopic spores 



1 Also called Myc.to:oa, 

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