PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION^ 



The present work has grown out of a monograph entitled 

 Myxomycetes of Eastern Iowa, published by the present author about 

 eight years ago. The original work was intended chiefly for the use 

 of the author's own pupils; but interest in the subject proved much 

 wider than had been supposed, and a rather large edition of that 

 little work was speedily exhausted. At that time literature on the 

 subject in question — literature accessible to English readers — was 

 scant indeed. Cooke's translation of Rostafinski, in so far as con- 

 cerned the species of Great Britain, was practically all there was to 

 be consulted in English. 



In 1892 appeared in London Massee's Monograph of the 

 Myxogastres, and two years later in the same world's centre the 

 trustees of the British Museum brought out Lister's Mycetozoa. 

 Although these two English works both claim revision of the entire 

 group under discussion, the latter paying special attention to Amer- 

 ican forms, nevertheless there still seems place for a less pretentious 

 volume which for American students shall present succinct descrip- 

 tions of North American species only. The material basis of the 

 present work consists of collections now in the herbarium of the 

 State University of Iowa. In accumulating the material the author 

 has had the generous assistance of botanists in all parts of the coun- 

 try, from Alaska to Panama, and the geographical distribution is in 

 most cases authenticated by specimens from the localities named. 

 The descriptions, in case of species represented in Europe, are based 

 upon those of European authors; for forms first described in this 

 country, the original descriptions have been consulted. A bibli- 

 ography follows this preface. 



In reference to the omnipresent vexed question of nomenclature, a 

 word is perhaps necessary. De Candolle's rule, "The first authentic 

 specific name published under the genus in which the species now 



1 The North American Slime Moulds, 1899. 



