CHAPTER VIII 



THE MYCETOZOA 



THE group of organisms which de Bary named Mycetozoa 

 (fungus-animals) in 1859 are also known as Myxomycetes 

 (slime-fungi). Without practical knowledge of this group 

 no one can command a right perspective of the Protista. 



The commoner kinds are to be found without much 

 trouble in pleasant places. A. Lister told us that Lampro- 

 derma scintillans is a most abundant species in England, 

 and how it appears in countless numbers in heaps of dead 

 leaves : in a dark fir plantation the stones and herbage by 

 the side of a rivulet appeared hoary over an area of many 

 square yards with the young rising sporangia, and a little 

 search showed the mature forms in equal abundance. 

 Mucilago spongiosa may be unpleasantly abundant : G. 

 Massee wrote : " Its plasmodium often creeps up the 

 stems of living grasses, and forms spore-masses up to 2-3 

 inches in length and an inch in diameter. . . . The dense 

 masses of spores are said to injure vegetation by a process 

 of suffocation. . . . Horses and other animals, have suffered, 



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