240 Dr. A. de Bary on the Mycetozoa. 



and were this indication of their cell-natuve wanting, the well- 

 determined fact of their production from undoubted cells would 

 furnish evidence to the same effect. In the - swarmers (figs. 

 6, 8, 19), indeed, no cell-wall, in the usual acceptation ot the 

 term, is present ; but there is a nucleus, and they are to be 

 regarded as primordial cells possessing the power of secreting a 

 ceS-wall. although for the time that power is held m abeyance. 

 Lastly, the sarcode-cords must be considered as ceils, notwitn- 

 standmg their fi-ure and size, inasmuch as they are derived 

 from the Amoebiform existences, the pecuhar properties ot which 

 they continue to retain. The same statement holds good ot 

 those cell-bodies derived from the coalescence ot two or more 

 originally independent cells j for they are in structure precisely 

 sitnilar to cells derived from the fructifying conjugation in Alg«, 

 which proves that, in the strictest sense of the word, a cell may 

 ori-inate from the coalescence of two or more cells. 



It must, however, not be concluded that the sarcode-cords 

 orio-inate m a coalescence of cells by a process of vegetative 

 cop'ulation : on this subject further inquiries are needed. 



The only satisfactory criterion of an animal nature m a doubt- 

 ful organism is to be found in the reception of solid tood— a 

 property not possessed by any plant or plant-cell. Assuming 

 the correctness of this statement, the Mycetozoa are referabe 

 to the animal kingdom ; for solid particles are found withm their 

 sarcode-substance, just as in the aquatic and undoubtedly aninial 

 Amoeba. Not that the act of prehension has been vvitnessed ; 

 but the cells of Alga, and Fungi and the spores oiU^c^iom^ 

 have been seen in the interior of the AmcBb<« of Tnchxa, Arcjrta, 

 and yEthalimn. In Lycoc/ala alone have such foreign particles 

 been hitherto sought in vam. 



The evidence that these solid particles serve as food, and are 

 not accidentally enveloped by the mucoid sarcode, as Dujardin 

 affirmed, rests on the same basis in the case of the Amoebiform 

 phases of the Mycetozoa as in that of the true Amoebre; 

 and even should their accidental entrance withm the tissue be 

 demonstrated, yet the Mycetozoa would claim a place in the 

 animal kmgdom on the ground of their many and great esem- 

 blanccs to admitted animals, and their slight analogy to any 



^' The connexion of Mycetozoa with Gasteromycetes must be 

 severed, since it is founded only on «^^pevficial resemblances 

 They are most similar to the Algal groups of Siphon^a and 

 Sapmlegnia.; but, although the zoospores of these Alg=« posses^ 

 a certain degree of locomotive power and contractihty, Y^^' th .^^ 

 properties a?e in them far inferior in n.tensity to those of the 

 Mycetozoa, and arc likewise of comparatively very briet duiation. 



