160 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 



the conjugation of the nuclei in the sporangia. The full 

 number is restored by conjugation, but is promptly reduced to 

 half by the meiotic division immediately following. In other 

 words, it would seem that in the life cycle of the Mycetozoa 

 all the nuclear divisions but one belong to the so-called 

 postmeiotic phase, and therefore correspond to the two 

 postmeiotic divisions of the spermatocyte described on p. 122. 

 Badhamia is a member of a large class of organisms which 

 live on decaying organic substances. It alone, in the plas- 

 modial condition, feeds upon living fungi, though the flagellulae 

 of a large number of species have been observed to feed on 

 living bacteria. Now, the ingestion of solid organic substances 

 and their digestion within the body are essentially animal 

 characteristics, and seem to justify the claim of zoologists to 

 the possession of Badhamia. But many of its allies, such as 

 the common Fuligo septica, or " flowers of tan," found in old 

 tan-pits, feed on decaying vegetable matter only, and in this 

 respect rather resemble the Fungi in their mode of nutrition. 

 The whole group of the Mycetozoa is further held to resemble 

 the lower plants, because of the manner in which the sporangia 

 are formed, and because the spores themselves have coats of 

 cutin and sometimes of cellulose, two characteristically vegetable 

 products, though cellulose is not unknown in the animal 

 kingdom. But a discussion as to whether they are animal or 

 vegetable would be fruitless. Organic nature does not lend 

 itself to sharp distinctions and the Mycetozoa, of which our 

 Badhamia is taken as an example, afford one of the best in- 

 stances of the convergence of the two great types of organic 

 structure, plants and animals, so widely different in their 

 higher forms. 



