Il6 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



to the very low organisms hitherto so much neglected, 

 and yet so extremely important. I have called this 

 boundary kingdom intermediate between the animal 

 and the vegetable kingdoms, and connecting both, 

 the PROTISTA i.' All the members of this king- 

 dom multiply by an exclusively non-sexual method 

 of reproduction. It should be understood, however, 

 that in proposing such a classification Prof. Haeckel 

 by no means wishes to establish an absolute wall 

 of separation between these three organic kingdoms. 

 He is much more disposed to believe that animals 

 as well as plants have gradually arisen out of mo- 

 difications which have taken place in the simplest 

 Protista. This primordial organic kingdom he divides 

 into ten groups, in the lowest of which, named 

 Monera 2 , are included such mere naked, non-nucle- 

 ated jelly-specks as those belonging to the genera 



1 rb irpduTtaTov, the first of all, primordial. 'Gen. Morph.' vol. i. 

 p. 203, and vol. ii. p. xx. and p. 403. Elsewhere he says : ' The question 

 which has been so often debated during the last twenty years as to 

 a boundary between the animal and the vegetable kingdoms will be 

 decided by the Monera, or, more correctly, they will prove that a perfect 

 separation of both kingdoms, in the manner in which it is usually 

 attempted, is impossible. The Monera are apparently such peculiar 

 organisms that they can be classed with equal propriety, or rather with 

 equal arbitrariness, as primitive animals or as primitive plants. They 

 may just as well be regarded as the first beginnings of animal as of 

 vegetable organization. But as no one mark of distinction inclines them 

 more to one side than to the other, it seems most correct at present 

 to class them as intermediate between true animals and true plants.' 

 .('Journal of Micros. Science,' Jan. 1869, p. 29.) 



2 Name from ftof^s, simple. 



