88 THE MYXOMYCETES. 



On inquiry into the facts known concerning this group, it will be 

 apparent that the settlement of the question is by no means easy when 

 all things are taken into consideration. There are, of course, three 

 possible conclusions open to us : We may decide that the Myxomycetes 

 are animals ; or that they are plants ; or that they are the foi-mer at 

 one period of their existence, and tlie latter at another. The last- 

 named possibility, however strange it may appear, must not be 

 overlooked, since it is evident that the belief in the fundamental 

 distinction of the two classes of living things, founded, as it was origi- 

 nally, upon an acquaintance only with the higher forms, has of late 

 years received many a rude and, it may be, fatal shock. It is easy to 

 denounce siach a conclusion as the refuge of timidity ; it is another 

 thing to prove that the dividing line in Nature is really an impassable 

 one. The mycologists of this country have long made up their minds 

 in favour of the truly vegetable nature of the group, and most of them 

 would be soi'ry to lose a class of Fungi in which some of the most 

 remarkable and beautiful species are to be found. But at the same 

 time it is quite certain that the particular position formerly assigned 

 to them among the Fungi is no longer tenable, being founded upon 

 a gross disregard of many of their characteristics. 



There is one point which it seems to be essential to consider, but 

 which, so far as I have read, has not been introduced into the con- 

 troversy. If we believe that all animals and plants are genetically 

 connected, that is, are all descended alike from one or more primordial 

 forms of life, we should anticipate not only that there w'ould be a 

 point of contact between the two living kingdoms of Nature, but that 

 there would be several such, and these, perhaps, occurring at parts of 

 our classification far removed from one another. Botanists know that 

 no large group of plants can be arranged in a linear series so as to 

 display fully their mutual affinities. The species of a large genus, or 

 the genera of a large order, require to be grouped on a plane, or it may 

 be even in space of three dimensions, in order to show how they are 

 connected with one another. It is of course understood that in a 

 perfect arrangement the points of junction would really indicate 

 genetic descent. In the same degree, then, at least, or more probably 

 m a greater, ought we to find many points of junction between animal 

 and vegetable forms. While the Fungi merge insensibly in the Algse, 

 and the Algse in the Protozoa, yet there may be a point where the 

 Fungi are connected with the Protozoa immediately, and tliat is 

 through this group of Fungi, the Myxomycetes. 



OUTLINE OF THE CONTROVEKSY. 



It Will be well to give a short outline of the opinions about the 

 Myxomycetes before proceeding to describe them. Up to and including 

 the year 18o7, when Rev. M. J. Berkeley published his " Introduction 

 to Cryptogamic Botany," the Myxogastres, as they were then called, 

 were placed among the Gastromycetes, their nearest allies being the 

 Trichogastres or Puffballs. At this time nothing was known of their 



