106 BOTANY. 
Crass I. Sxtrue-Movutps (Myxomycetes). 
218. The Slime-moulds are in many respects the most 
remarkable of all known plants. They Bear so strong a 
resemblance to the lowest animals (Protozoa) that they 
have been, time and again, placed in the animal kingdom 
wast bere int ig a Slime-mould (Physarum leucopus) in its vegetative stage. 
by various naturalists. When we compare them with any 
other plants, they are found to differ from them so widely 
that very little relationship can be detected. 
219. A Slime-mould is a mass of naked, shapeless proto- 
plasm (Fig. 44) during all the growing part of its life. In 
