THE MYXOiMYCETES. 87 



THE MYX()MYCP:TES, 



BY W, H, GROVE, 15. A. 



nffi(l hft'nir ffif Societi/ .hinudnj :^4th, 1882. 



The group of oi-ganisms named INIyxomycetes,* or Myxogastres, 

 constitntes a curious debatable land, concerning the nature of which 

 the most diverse opinions have been and continue to be expressed. 

 They form one of the groups which Haeckel united to form his new 

 sub-kingdom — the Protista — which was intended to embrace all those 

 simple forms of life in which the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms 

 approach one another. His object in instituting this arrangement was 

 to get over the acknowledged difficulty of distinguishing between what 

 of these are animals and what are plants. But, as Saville Kent lately, f 

 and long before him Professor Huxley, + pointed out, he gets over the 

 difficulty in a curious way. He proposes that, instead of having one 

 Hue of demarcation to puzzle over, we shall in future have two, namely, 

 that between undoubted animals and the Protista, and that between 

 the Protista and undoubted plants. This, however, would not be an 

 objection to his classification if it could be proved on other grounds to 

 be desii-able ; for the question is not solely what course will be the 

 easiest for us, but what will most truly represent the facts. Some of 

 his proposed Protista, as the Diatoms, the Sponges, the Rhizopoda, 

 the Noctilucae, have now had their position definitively settled one 

 way or the other. Others, such as Euglena, are still perhaps siibjudice, 

 and. since Saville Kent has made his recent and determined attack 

 upon them,>j the Myxomj-cetes must now be considered to belong to the 

 same doubtful categorv. 



Description of the Figures in Platr IIa. 



Fig. 1. — Crtiteriiim }^erh(ncitlatum, Trent. 



Fig. -2. — Capillitium and spores of the same. 



Fig. 3. — Trichia faUa.c. Pers. 



Fig. 4. — Elater and spores of the same. 



Fig. 5. — Diagram of portion of elater of the same, to show arrangement of 



spirals. 

 Fig. 6. — a, b, c, e,f, spores of Physnrum cinercinii. (Batsch.l dehiscing in water; 



d, less usual form, with the protoplasm divided into two masses. 

 Fig. 7. — Didymium squamulomim. (A. * S.), var. coxtatum. 



All the figures are drawn from nature, except ftg. 5, which is diagrammatic. 



* I.e., Slime-fungi. 

 t " Manual of the Infusoria," p. 4-1. 



", " Quarterly .Journal of Microscopical Science," 1868, p. 127. 

 ,S " Manual of the Infusoria," pp. 41-3, 193, 470-2; and '-Popular Science 

 Review." .April. 1881. 



