10 INTRODUCTORY 



of these lines gives rise on the one hand to rhizopods and sponges in 

 the animal kingdom, on the other to the Myxomycetes among the 

 fungi." This ranges the Myxomycetes, in origin at least, near the 

 Schizomycetes. 



The brilliant studies of Dr. Thaxter, resulting in the discovery and 

 recognition of a new group, a new order of the schizomycetes, strik- 

 ingly confirm the judgment of Schroeter.^ Here we have forms 

 that strangely unite characteristics of both the groups in question. 

 If on the one hand the Myxobacteria are certainly schizomycetes, 

 on the other they just as certainly ofJer in their developmental history 

 "phenomena closely resembling those presented by plasmodia or 

 pseudo-plasmodia . . " Now the schizophytes certainly pass by 

 gradations easy to the filamentous algae, and so to relationship with 

 the plants, and the discovery of the Myxobacteriacae, brings the 

 myxomycetes very near the vegetable kingdom if not within it. 



All authorities agree that the myxomycetes have no connection in 

 the direction of upward development, "keinen Anschluss nach oben," 

 if then their only relationship with other organisms is to be found at 

 the bottom (centre) of the series only, it is purely a matter of in- 

 difference whether we say plant or animal, for at the only point 

 where there is connection there is no distinction. 



But why call them either animals or plants? Was Nature then so 

 poor that forsooth only two lines of differentiation were at the begin- 

 ning open for her effort ? May we not rather believe that life's tree 

 may have risen at first in hundreds of tentative trunks of which two 

 have become in the progress of the ages so far dominant as to entirely 

 obscure less progressive types? The Myxomycetes are independent; 

 all that we may attempt is to assert their near kinship with one or 

 other of life's great branches. 



The cellulose of the slime-mould looks toward the world of plants. 

 The aerial fructification and stipitate habit of the higher forms tends 

 in the same direction. The disposition to attach themselves to some 

 fixed base is a curious characteristic of plants, more pronounced as we 

 ascend the scale ; but by no means lacking in many of the simplest, 

 diatoms, filamentous algae, etc., and it is quite as reasonable to call a 

 vorticella, or a stentor, by virtue of his stipitate form and habit, a 



^Botanical Gazette, XVII., pp. 389, etc.; 1892. 



