THE MYXOSIYCETES. 89 



development. In 1859 Dr. de Bary, Professor of Botany at the 

 University of Freiberg, for the first time observed the germination of 

 the spores, and found that, instead of giving rise to a jointed hypha 

 or filament, as other Fungi do, they produced an actively locomotive 

 creature resembling a monad. After examining a number of the 

 Myxogastres, and finding the germination of the spores the same in 

 all, he considered that he had grounds for the opinion that these 

 organisms had more affinity with the Protozoa than with Fungi, and 

 proposed for them the name Mycetozoa.* These results were independ- 

 ently confirmed by a Polish observer, Cienkowski, and armed with this 

 confirmation, de Bary published, in 1864, a larger work, in which he 

 repeated his belief in the animal natui'e of these creatures.f About 

 1868, Haeckel proposed his idea of including these, as well as other 

 doubtful forms, in a distinct group, the Protista. In 1871 appeared 

 Cooke's " Hand-book of British Fungi," which is merely, as far as 

 concerns the larger divisions, a reprint of Berkeley's classification, 

 which is itself taken mainly from the great Swedish Botanist, 

 Fries. The Myxomycetes are consequently there placed among the 

 Gastromycetes, and this position has since been retained for the addi- 

 tional species recorded in " Grevillea " up to the present time. 

 In 1875, another Pole, Rostafinski, issued a Monograph of the 

 Mycetozoa, in which he appears, though not very clearly, to incline to 

 the animal side of the controversy. This is still the standard work 

 on this group of Fungi, and it is curious that the ambiguous definition 

 there given is invoked equally by each party to the controversy as 

 favouring his particular view. 



In 1875 also the English edition of " Sachs' Botany" was published, 

 in which the Myxomycetes, as they are there called, were placed as a 

 supplement or appendix to the Fungi. In the same year appeared the 

 fourth German edition of Sachs', in which a change was made in the 

 classification. The Algae and Fungi are there arranged in two parallel 

 series, distinguished from one another solely in the fact that one series 

 produces chlorophyll and the other not. The Bacteria are placed, as 

 the lowefet Fungi, on a level with the unicellular Algse, and next 

 (passing over the small group of Saccharomycetes) we have the 

 Myxomycetes, paralleled in the other column by the Volvocineae among 

 the Algas. Professor Allman, in his Presidential Address to the British 

 Association in 1879, declares that, " though the alifinities of the 

 Myxomycetes with the Fungi are, perhaps, closer than with any other 

 plants, they differ from them in so many points, especially in their 

 development, as to render this association untenable." J; 



Saville Kent, in his '• Manual of the Infusoria," and more 

 recently in the " Popular Science Review," adopts the animal 

 hypothesis, and offers many new facts and parallels from the 

 Animal Kingdom in support of his belief. To this, at present, no reply 



* I.e., Fungus-animals. 



t This belief he has now changed ; " he holds and teaches that they are 

 veritable plants." 



; British Association Eeport, 1879, p. 14. 



