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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fig. 6.— Stemonitis fusca. Central figure x 

 spores more highly magnified. 



2 ; detail and 



The more we study these wonderful organisms, the more sur- 

 prising it seems that two such very different phases should coexist 

 in the same organism and succeed each other so abruptly. We no 

 longer wonder at the perplexity of the systematists, and we can 



but admire the reck- 

 less courage of Sac- 

 cardo, who discusses 

 the slime-molds in his 

 volume vii, " Sylloge 

 Fungorum," along 

 with other mycelium- 

 less forms, and says 

 never so much as " By 

 your leave." 



Before the vision 

 of the biologist there 

 rises ever more that 

 weird limbo where 

 " men " appear " as 

 trees walking." 

 Whether, as in that 

 elder case, experience 

 may bring clearer vision, time alone can tell. Plant and animal 

 have doubtless somewhere a common starting-ground. Toward 

 that common origin the Myxomycetes undoubtedly point. They 

 are not it. They seem rather 

 to represent an independent 

 twig near the base of the 

 great tree of life, a branchlet 

 whose departure was absolute 

 as ancient, developing with no 

 respect to any other organic 

 thing, and soon reaching the 

 limit of that particular pos- 

 sibility. Perfect in them- 

 selves, we may look for noth- 

 ing further in that direction. 

 Nature herself has written, 

 " No thoroughfare." 



In conclusion, we may 

 notice the question of utility 

 which doubtless rises in some 

 minds. To what end are all these microscopic bits of stuff 

 organic thus hidden from ordinary ken ? To such a query no 

 real answer can be given. Our systems of economics are nowhere 

 sufficiently refined, our tests of value show no balances whose 



Fig. 7. — Arcyria punicea. Detail and spores highly 

 magnified. 



