CH.XVII.] CLUB-EOOT OF TURNIPS, ETC. 95 



termed by Professor A. De Bary Mycetozoa, or fungus-like 

 animals. No fungologists of repute, however, and very 

 few zoologists, hold either of these views at the present day. 

 When Professor De Bary termed these fungi Mycetozoa, 

 little or nothing had been learned of the production of 

 zoospores in fungi, a phenomenon now so well known in 

 Gystopus, Peronospora, and other genera. 



The Myxomycetes are especially remarkable in the 

 fact that they do not form cells, cellwalls, tissues, or 

 mycelium, during the period of vegetation, but their 

 protoplasm remains during that time free, and collected 

 into small masses of various and changeable forms. At a 

 certain definite advanced period of growth the vital 

 material of a Myxomycete breaks up into small portions, 

 and these portions at length surround themselves with a 

 cellwall, and become either fruits, sporangia, or spores, 

 and in this condition the fungus remains at rest during 

 a certain definite period. If the spores are kept dry they 

 will retain their vitality for several years. After a period 

 of hibernation the sporangia sometimes coalesce, and the 

 spores germinate by the cellwall cracking, and the vital ma- 

 terial exuding as a small round or irregularly-shaped mass ; 

 this exuded mass speedily becomes furnished with one or 

 two highly-attenuated tails, vibrating hairs, or cilia, and 

 with the aid of these tails the little exuded masses are 

 enabled to creep about over any moist surface in an 

 Amoeba-like fashion. The exuded masses are capable of 

 multiplication by division, or (generally after a few days) 

 they will unite with each other, and so form a homogene- 

 ous mass of protoplasm of larger size, which mass also 

 possesses an Amoeba-like movement. This homogeneous 

 mass of combined Amoeba-like material ejected from the 

 spores is termed a plasmodium. The plasmodium is now 

 capable not only of coalescing with other neighbouring 

 plasmodia, but also of absorbing other Amoeba-like spore 

 contents. A plasmodium possesses the power of creeping 

 about by extending armlike processes from its margin, 



