174 THE MYXOMVCETES OF PICTOU COUNTV. — MOORE. 



All of the forms assigned to the Myxogastres by Fries were 

 ]\Iyxomveetes producing spores in closed sporangia — the 

 Endosporew of modem writers. He did not recognize the close 

 relationshi}) to these, of such forms as Cemtiuinyxa — the med- 

 ern Exosporew — and these he assigned to the genus Ceraiiiun, 

 01 the order CephalotricJiei, class Hyphomycetes. 



In 18.'];5, Link recognizing the fundamental distinction 

 bet'WBen the Myxogastres and the remaining G-asteromycet^es, 

 proposed to erect them into a new order of the class Fungi, 

 imder the title ]\Iyxomyc^tes. Tn tilic same year this term was 

 also used by "Wallroth. 



From the time of the publication of the Systema Mycologi- 

 cum until 18G4, little advance was made in a knowledge of the 

 Myxomycetes ; but in that year was published the results of 

 dcBary's work on the group. It was this investigator who first 

 followed the history of tliese organisms from the germination 

 of the spore through the swarmcr, amoeboid and plasmodie 

 phases to fructification and spore formation. Impressed with 

 the remarkable similarity between the life history of these 

 organisms and that of undoubted animal forms, he was con- 

 strained to assign tiliem a place without the vegetable, but not 

 necessarily- within the animal kingdom. With the Myxomy- 

 cetes as previously understood, he united the Acrasiece of Van 

 Tieghem, a small group inhabiting the excrement of animals, 

 and proposed for the whole grou]) the tenn Myoetozoa. Under 

 this head, however, he still retained the term Myxomycetes for 

 the section i;o named by Link. 



The Acrasiece are saprophytes, the plasmodia of whidh are 

 formed l)y the aggregation, walkout fusion, of amoeboid bodies. 

 These latter arise directly from the germinating spores and the 

 flagellate stage is wanting. In fructification, these amoeboid 

 bodies aggregate in large numbers, creeping up against one 

 another and finally eacih becomes snrrounded by a firm mem- 

 brane and functions as a spore. Tn many forms some of the 



