A Monor/raj^li of the Myxogastres. 11 



belonging to different orders of the Myxogastres, give a charac- 

 teristic cellulose reaction, and more extended experiments 

 wore only required to show that the presence of cellulose 

 during some or other phase of development is general in the 

 Myxomycetcs ; cellulose as a protective substance cannot be said 

 to be so generally present as in phanerogams, neither is it so 

 general in the fungi, hence the term fungus-cellulose. In the 

 Acrasicac the stipes in many species consists of one or more 

 rows of superposed cells having the walls composed of cellulose. 



The presence of cellulose, according to De Bary, is the only 

 character showing that the Myxogastres are in touch with the 

 vegetable kingdom — " The Mycetozoa show only a slight agree- 

 ment, either in the general course of their development or in 

 the characteristic features of its separate stages, with organisms 

 that are of undoubted vegetable origin ; whether they be fungi 

 or plants other than fungi ; the agreement, with the exception 

 of a few cases in which cellulose makes its appearance, is 

 confined to phenomena which are common to all organized 

 bodies." ^ 



I cannot reconcile the above sweeping statement with the 

 two following, first — in connection with affinities, " we are limited 

 to the observation of resemblances in form, structure, and mode 

 of life " ; second, " the resemblance of the Mycetozoa to the 

 Fungi is due partly to their mode of life and nutrition, partly 

 to the close agreement in structure and biological characters 

 between their organs of rej^roduction and the spores of Fungi." 

 One more point given by De Bary in support of the animal 

 nature of the Myxogastres requires to be noticed. " It is obvious 

 moreover according to our present knowledge that the Mycetozoa 

 are the superior terminal member or the two terminal members 

 of a series of forms or developments which commence elsewhere. 

 The most highly differentiated sections of the group, tlie 

 Ca/careae, Trichiae, Lycogcda, and others, give evidence of no 

 close affinity with any more highly differentiated group ; in other 

 words, like the Gastromycdcs with which they were classed by 

 earlier botanists, they do not connect with any group above 



1 Tuin. cit. p. 444. 



