220 LISTER .* THE STUDY OF MYCETOZOA IN BRITAIN. 
of nuclei in young sporangia, of the remarkable wave of mitotic 
division that occasionally sweeps over thousands of nuclei 
in the streaming plasmodium—a phenomenon first seen by 
himself—all these observations were placed at my father’s 
service to be incorporated with his account of the life-history. 
A small book entitled The Mycetozoa and some Questions 
which they Suggest, by Sir Edward Fry and his daughter, Miss 
Agnes Fry, published in 1899, gives a delightful introduction 
to the study of Mycetozoa. The authors discuss the relation 
of the group to other forms of life, and, in describing the ways 
of the plasmodium and the formation and structure of sporangia,, 
call attention to the many far-reaching problems which these 
things suggest. A second and enlarged edition appeared in 
I 9 I 5- 
The last landmark in this sketch of the Study of Mycetozoa 
in Britain that I will allude to is the late Prof. Minchin’s summary 
of Jahn’s recent work, which appears in his Introduction to the 
Study of Protozoa. Dr. Jahn, who for many years worked 
in the Berlin University, and was a valued and friendly corres¬ 
pondent of my father’s, crowned a long series of interesting 
observations on the life history of Mycetozoa by discovering 
that the swarm-cells which emerge from the spores are to be 
regarded as gametes ; that they fuse in pairs ; and that it is 
from the zygotes so formed that the young plasmodia arise. 
By exhibiting this process of conjugation, the Mycetozoa fall 
into line with other Orders of the Protozoa. 
The systematic position of the Mycetozoa is a highly-favoured 
one. Since the time of De Bary, zoologists have claimed them 
as Protozoa, while botanists, realizing more than ever how 
arbitrary are the distinctions between the simpler forms of 
animal and vegetable life, regard them as a doubtful group 
lying on the borderland of the two kingdoms which they should 
not neglect. Hence a course of instruction in either branch 
of biology includes the study of Mycetozoa. 
In bringing this sketch to a close, I realise that there are 
many others now living whose work in connection with Mycetozoa 
well deserves mention. 
History never comes to an end. Other men laboured and 
we are entered into their labours. It is our privilege to pass 
on the torch that has been handed down to us ; and, in this. 
