AMONG SIMPLE SAECOBB OKGANISMS. 417 



He found that a fragment broken off from this plasmodial net- 

 work moves about independently, and he saw it throw out a long 

 pointed pseudopodium which attached itself to an Alga, penetrated 

 its walls and sucked out its contents in the manner of a Vampy- 

 rella, another simple sarcode organism to which we shall pre- 

 sently refer. 



"Whether the Myxomycetce should take their place in the animal 

 or vegetable kingdom is a question which in the present state of 

 our knowledge it is impossible to answer. Haeckel has evaded 

 the difficulty by placing them, along with a number of other doubt- 

 ful organisms, in his kingdom of the Protista, which he regards 

 as holding an intermediate place between animals and plants. 



Cienkowski has followed his researches on the Myxomycetce by 

 another important memoir on a group of minute sarcode organ- 

 isms to which he has assigned the name of Monadince^. During 

 certain phases of their development they resemble in many re- 

 spects the well-known zoospores of the Algae, and might, indeed, 

 be so regarded, were it not that, like the swarm-spores of the 

 Myxomycetcd, they have been proved to pass through a special and 

 peculiar cycle of development which entitles them to be viewed as 

 an independent group. 



Cienkowski has given us the life-history of five forms which 

 he refers to his Monadince. Two or three of them may be here 

 adduced with the view of giving an adequate conception of these 

 remarkaJble organisms. 



In the cells of decaying Nitella there may be found certain mi- 

 nute spindle-shaped very contractile bodies, which move about by 

 the aid of cilia, and which closely resemble the swarm-spores of 

 the MyxomycetcB or of the Algse. Cienkowski has assigned to 

 them the name of Monas mnyli. After a time they lose their 

 cilia, emit pseudopodia, and, assuming the form of an Amoeba, 

 creep about and take in foreign matter as nutriment by enveloping 

 it in their soft protoplasm. Eurther, two or more of these amoebi- 

 form bodies may unite and become fused together into a Plasmo- 

 dium like that of the Myxomycetae. 



After enjoying for a time its free locomotive condition, Monas 

 amyli passes into a resting state. The amcebiform body begins to 

 barden itself on its surface into a continuous membrane, and thus 

 becomes enclosed in a capsular covering. After continuing thus 



* Cienkowski, "Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Monaden," Arch. f. mikros. 

 Anat. 1866. 



LINN. JOUEN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XIII. 35 



