8 PLANT-LIFE 



lowly, could exist, it was essential that other organisms 

 capable of feeding and thriving upon inorganic substances 

 should make their existence practicable. Such organ- 

 isms, as the sequel will show, are plants. 



So we have no difficulty in deciding to which category 

 Amwha belongs; it is certainly an animal. But we can 

 come to no easy or certain conclusion with regard to 

 those curious organisms commonly known as "Slime- 

 Fungi," and technically designated Myxomycetes (Gr. 

 myxa, mucus; myhes, a fungus), or Mycetozoa (Gr. 

 myhes, and zoon, an animal). Over 400 species of 

 Myxomycetes have been described; they occur on 

 rotting leaves, wood, tan, etc., in damp situations; but 

 although they are common, they do not seem to be 

 known by persons other than naturalists. Yet they are 

 of profound interest, for in no other organisms have we 

 the opportunity of studying protoplasm without the 

 limitations of cell- walls in such great mass. One 

 species, Fuligo varians, or " Flowers of Tan," is fre- 

 quently seen in summer on damp tan-bark; it is of 

 creamy consistence, bright yellow in colour, and often 

 extends to a breadth of about a foot. Thus seen, 

 Fuligo is in its vegetative state, occurring as a mass of 

 naked protoplasm; later, it passes into the reproductive 

 stage. The life-history of a Myxomycete is very 

 simple: the mass of naked protoplasm, called a " Plas- 

 modium " {plasm, a mould, or matrix), creeps slowly 

 on the surface, say, of decaying wood, feeding and 

 growing the while. In due course the organism ceases 

 to feed, and a startling change takes place, for the Plas- 

 modium is converted either into a single fruit (sporan- 

 gium) or a number of sporangia, in which a mass of 



