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other matrices. One species was observed by Schweinitz to be 
developed on iron which had been heated in a forge only a few 
hours previously. Mr. Mclver found one on a leaden tank, 
while Mr. James Sowerby discovered another on cinders in the 
outer gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral. Like Algae they appear 
to derive their nutriment from the surrounding medium, and 
not from the matrix to which they are attached.' 
The data embodied in the foregoing and earlier accounts of 
the Myxomycetes were held to demonstrate their rightful position 
to be among the Grasteromycetous Fungi, their apparent nearest 
allies being the Trichogasters or Puffballs, Lycoperdon , JBovista, 
&c., from which, however, they essentially differed in the pro- 
duction of their peridia, or sporangia, from a structureless, pulpy 
mass instead of from a distinct cellular hymenium. (Illustra- 
tions of the fungus-like, matured peridia or spore-receptacles of 
various typical representatives of the Myxomycetes, natural 
size and magnified, will be found in the accompanying Plates III., 
figs. 1, 21, and 35, and IV., figs. 1, 24, and 30 to 32.) So far, the 
developmental phenomena of these singular organisms — which 
among both animals and plants are now universally recognized 
as furnishing the true key to their natural position and affinities 
— had remained undiscovered, or involved in the greatest ob- 
scurity. About the year 1859, however, Dr. A.De Bary, the ac- 
complished Professor of Botany at Freiberg University, applying 
himself to the solution of this moot question, arrived at some 
totally unexpected results. The spores on careful cultivation 
were found to give rise, not to jointed cellular hyphae, or my- 
celia, as obtains among all ordinary Fungi, but to flagellate 
monadiform germs possessing active locomotive faculties, a 
spheroidal nucleus or endoplast, one or more contractile vacuoles, 
and the faculty of ingesting solid food-substances. After a 
short interval these germs, retracting their flagella, assumed an 
amceboid repent phase and coalescing freely with their neigh- 
bours, built up the so-called gelatinous, or pulpy masses, out of 
which the sporangia, or peridia, were developed. With rela- 
tion to the phenomena exhibited by the Myxomycetes during 
their active vegetative life, De Bary arrived at the conclusion 
that they could not be consistently retained as vegetable organ- 
isms, but were referable to the lower animal series, or Protozoic 
sub-kingdom, and might be more conveniently designated the 
‘ Mycetozoa.’ 
In the year 1862, the main results arrived at by De Bary 
were confirmed by L. Cienkowski,* who now for the first time 
definitely associated with the so-called pulpy mass, derived 
through the coalescence of the monadiform germs, the title of 
* Zur Enf/urickeluvgs-geschichte der Myxomyceten, in Pringsheims Jahr - 
biicher fur wissenschaftliche Botanxk. Berlin, 1862. 
