2 Synopsis of the Bacteria and Yeast Fungi. 



different The latter live, like all Algae, in pure water, which 

 contains comparatively little organic matter; or they are 

 found on dripping • rocks, on damp ground, etc. ; they 

 produce no striking decompositions in the water which they 

 inhabit, and they soon perish in a putrefying liquid. 



It is quite otherwise with the Schizomycetes, which, on 

 account of their want of chlorophyll, are reduced to live on 

 ready-organized substances, as are Fungi generally. The 

 Schizomycetes, therefore, produce in their substratum, or in 

 the fluid which they inhabit, very considerable and striking 

 decompositions. They perish in pure water, containing no 

 decomposable substance. They grow, therefore, exclusively 

 in organic liquids, or in water or on damp spots where there 

 is an abundance of organized matter. 



Though we are thus certainly justified in separating the 

 Schizomycetes from the Phycochromaceae, i.e. from the 

 Algae, it still remains to be decided how they are to be 

 limited from the animal kingdom. In fact, the Schizomycetes 

 stand at that stage in the evolution of organic beings at 

 which it is not possible to draw a sharp line of demarcation 

 between the two kingdoms. Their kinship with the mouth- 

 less monads has often been remarked, and one is inclined 

 more and more to unite the latter with them. I restrict 

 myself to indicating this point, while provisionally I still 

 exclude these forms from the Schizomycetes ; they require 

 much further and exhaustive study. Unfortunately this is 

 true in a high degree of the Schizomycetes themselves ; both 

 the morphological and systematic as well as the physiological 

 relations of this group of Fungi are still very insufficiently 

 investigated. Doubts and uncertainties of many kinds have 

 still to be. removed. 



Among the forms which are included among the Schizo- 

 mycetes in the following pages, are many which have often 



