SCHIZOPHYT.E. 29 



and reproduce by special organs called spores. Conversely the 

 multiplication of the (always unicellular) fission fungi is effected 

 by subdivision or fission, whence their name, so that we have the 

 following scheme : 



( Schizomycetes : (Fission fungi). Fission. 

 Fungi. < Eumycetes : (Higher fungi). AcrogenouSi 

 ( Branching. 



No doubt many readers will miss from this classification a third 

 sub-group, viz., the Myxomycetes, or mucus fungi. In order to at 

 once disarm any objection on this score, we will here mention that 

 the organisms in question have been shown by recent researches 

 to belong, not to the vegetable, but to the animal kingdom, 

 of which they constitute the lowest type of development. For 

 this reason modern systematology has applied to them the name 

 bestowed by De Bary, viz., Mycetozoa, animal fungi, or fungoid 

 animals. 



24. Sehizophytse. 



As their systematic juxtaposition would lead one to conclude, 

 the fungi and algse exhibit many traits in common, and, in fact, 

 the only important character by which they can be differentiated 

 is the absence of chlorophyll in the first named. 



As will be readily understood, it is especially the lower and 

 more simply constructed species of algae that, apart from the 

 characteristic difference just mentioned, approximate closely to 

 the fungi. This is particularly the case with the fission algse or 

 Diatomacece, which, with respect to their method of reproduction 

 by fission, bear no slight resemblance to the fission fungi. 



Owing to their greater size, and consequent discernibility, the 

 algss formed the subject of investigation at a much earlier date 

 than the very much smaller fission fungi, which necessitated the 

 employment of more perfect methods of examination, so that, by 

 the time the latter began to be studied, the green algse had already 

 been systematised. The temptation to include the newly-discovered 

 bacteria among the analogous algse was therefore great, and thus 

 it was that the meritorious German algologist FR. KUTZING (I.) 

 was induced to ascribe the acetic acid ferment discovered by him, 

 and now known as Bacterium aceti, to the algse, under the name 

 of Ulvina aceti. 



This inclination to regard fission fungi and algse as belonging 

 to the same class was also manifested by subsequent workers, and 

 the more so since the greater insight gained in the interim spoke 

 more conclusively in its favour than was possible in the initial, 

 imperfect stage of knowledge. Hence FERDINAND COHN (II.) in 

 1875 was obliged to discard his own (IV.) term for the bacteria, viz., 

 Schizosporce, as also that (Schizomycetes) proposed by Nsigeli (V.) 

 in 1857, and to classify these organisms with the lowest of the 



