106 



BOTANY. 



Class I. Slime-Mottlds {MyxomyeeUi). 



218. The Slime-monlds 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 



Fie. 44.— A part of a Slime-mould (Physarum leucopus)in its vegetative staee. 

 Magnified 350 times. 



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. 41) during all the growing part of its life. In 



