142 CLASSIFICATION OP THE MICEO- ORGANISMS. 



first they are segmented at wide intervals, the segments 

 afterwards become shorter, and when the yellowish red 

 masses appear in the cultivations numerous very short 

 rods and some more coccus-like structures are found 

 lying free and mostly surrounded by a membrane. In 

 the deeper layers, and on those places where the nutritive 

 soil is exhausted, the well known club-shaped swellings 

 appear in connection with the colonies. 



According to these results the actinomj'ces does not 

 belong to the mould fungi, but to the fission algae, 

 and must be looked on as a branched species of 

 cladothrix. The place here assigned to the ray fungus is 

 therefore a provisional one, and can only be maintained 

 till the publication of more detailed and confirmatory 

 communications. 



II. THE MYCETOZOA. 



The mycetozoa, which are as yet but little known, 

 include the myxomycetes, or slimy fungi, the acrasia, 

 and the monadina. It is very difficult to define with 

 certainty the place of the mycetozoa in the vegetable 

 kingdom on account of their morphological and biological 

 peculiarities ; they are classified among the fungi because 

 they form reproductive organs, which resemble fungus 

 spores ; on the other hand the division of the monadina, 

 more especially, is placed by some botanists in the 

 animal world, usually among the rhizopoda, with which 

 they show many resemblances. 



Morphology The myxomycetes have no mycelium; in the young 

 men^of the*" s ^ e ^ e y ^ orm na ked protoplasmic bodies, plasmodia, 

 myxomycetes. of a slimy consistence and of variable form. At the 

 period of fructification they become converted into 

 sporangia, in which spores are developed by the forma- 

 tion of cells. When germination occurs, movable swarming 

 bodies are developed from the spores, and by the fusion 

 of large numbers of these bodies a plasmodium is again 

 formed. The plasmodia form for the most part brightly 

 coloured voluminous masses, which develop on putrefying 

 vegetable substrata, on trunks of trees, &c. ; they often 



