136. A. E. HILTON ON A LOG AND SOME MYCETOZOA. 



the frail sporangia, and a few weeks after the final developments 

 it was difficult to discover any traces of them. 



That all traces of them are so soon lost adds to the mystery of 

 the Mycetozoa. They are strange creatures ; but their strange- 

 ness is rather misunderstood. The frequent inquiry as to whether 

 they are animals or plants is beside the mark ; because there is 

 no clear division between the two groups, and you cannot, with- 

 out reservation, place Mycetozoa either in one or the other. All 

 that can fairly be said is that, in the round of their life-cycle, 

 animal nature appears to preponderate. Beyond that point it is 

 purely a matter of defining the terms ; and as there is no clear 

 principle on which this can be done, the question is meaningless. 



The real mystery is their history. They are organisms of a 

 primitive kind, and their wide distribution over the globe is 

 presumptive evidence of early origin ; but no record of their 

 remoter past is ever likely to come to light. Whether they have 

 ever attained to higher developments, or have degenerated, we 

 do not know ; but making all allowance for possibility of survival 

 owing to the minuteness, multiplicity and resistance of the spores, 

 it seems incredible that such frail organisms can have come down 

 to us in an unbroken line from the earlier days of the appearance 

 of life upon this planet. Yet we have no assurance that condi- 

 tions for a fresh production of living things have prevailed at any 

 later period ; so there the matter rests. 



The attraction of Mycetozoa is not the mystery they conceal, 

 but the life they reveal. Of their vital transformations, descrip- 

 tions give no adequate idea. You need to see the translucent 

 plasm nakedly emerging from haunts of rottenness : to watch 

 the sensitive forms taking shape and colour, while changing tints 

 betray, as if consciously, the inward processes : until the living 

 elements, thus briefly unveiled, retreat into the seclusion of the 

 spores. When you have seen this with discerning eyes, you 

 understand the fascination of the Mycetozoa. 



JwTTi. Quekett Microscopical Club, Ser. 2, Vol. XIV., No. 86, November 1920. 



