xii PREFACE 



fortunately, Rostafinski is sometimes purely arbitrary in his selec- 

 tions. He sometimes changes a specific or even generic name, 

 otherwise correctly applied, simply because in primary etymological 

 significance the name seems to him inappropriate. In such cases it is 

 proper to restore the earlier name. Nevertheless Rostafinski is still 

 our most trustworthy guide. 



Of course, where later investigations have served to obliterate the 

 once-thought patent distinctions between supposed genera or species, 

 it is proper to unite such forms under the older determinable titles 

 and this we have attempted. But wherever in the present work a 

 name has been changed, the name of the earlier author will be found 

 in parenthesis, followed immediately by that of him who made the 

 change, and in general, recent practice, especially as expressed in the 

 rules of the various codes, has determined the puzzling questions of 

 nomenclature. 



In justification of the use of Myxomycetes as a general title it 

 may be said that in this case prevalent usage is not inconsistent with 

 a rational application of the rules of priority. The Friesian designa- 

 tion Myxogastres was applied by its author in 1829 to the endo- 

 sporous slime-moulds as a section of gasteromycetous fungi. Four 

 years later Link, perceiving more clearly the absolute distinctness of 

 the group, substituted the name Myxomycetes. In the same year 

 Wall roth adopted the same designation, but strangely confused the 

 limitations of the group he named. Wallroth seems to have thought 

 Myxomycetes a synonym for Gasteromycetes Fries. In 1858 DeBary 

 applied the title Mycetozoa to a group which included the then 

 lately discovered Acrasieae with the true slime-moulds, both endo- 

 sporous and exosporous. For all except the Acrasieae DeBary re- 

 tained the old appellation, Myxomj'cetcs. Rostafinski adopted 

 DeBary 's general name, but changed its application. As it has been 

 shown, since DeBary 's time, that the Acrasieae'^ have no true Plasmo- 

 dium, and are therefore not properly, or at least not necessarily, 

 associated with the slime-moulds, there appears no necessity for the 

 term Mycetozoa, and the question lies between Myxogastres and 

 Myxomycetes. Of these two names the former, as we have seen, has 

 ^ Cf. Edgar W. Olive, Monograph of the Acrasieae; Boston, 1902. 



