302 LISTER : THE HAUNTS OF THE MYCETOZOA. 
plants, and does not, therefore, seem suitable for use in con¬ 
nection with a group of organisms which are now considered 
to belong to Protozoa, in the Animal Kingdom. Another 
reason was that “ ecology ” is a very comprehensive term, 
involving many points of view : it refers not only to the character¬ 
istic haunts or habitats of plants, and to the groups of species 
■or “ plant associations ” growing in those habitats, but it 
■should treat also of the whole of the relations of individual 
plants to their habitats—matters of which we know as yet but 
little when dealing with Mycetozoa. I prefer, therefore, to 
use the simpler expression, the “ Haunts ” of the Mycetozoa. 
What, then, are these Haunts, and are we able to classify 
them in any definite way ? 
The late Dr. Rex, of Philadelphia, whose intimate knowledge 
of this group was derived from his own enthusiastic work, 
both in the held and with the microscope, wrote :—“ The ques¬ 
tion where to collect seems a simple one, and yet probably 
the experience of every mycologist teaches that no season, 
•or even collecting-tour, passes by without the acquisition of 
new facts in the ways and means of collecting. In this pursuit, 
the unexpected is constantly occurring. Our most valued 
‘ finds ’ may occur in places which set our previous experience 
at defiance. These organisms are emphatically the creatures 
•of warmth and moisture, and they may be found in any suitable 
locality which furnishes these requisites.” 
As an example of the “ unexpected,” Dr. Rex describes 
how on one occasion he found that the plasmodium of Diachcea 
leucopoda had crept up a clump of blackberry bushes to a foot 
in height, and had travelled thence upon the radiating threads 
•of a spider’s web suspended between the stems, where it matured 
its exquisite sporangia. 
Although it is important to guard against becoming rigid 
and conventional in our ways of hunting, and to be always on 
the look-out for fresh possibilities, experience proves that many 
species of Mycetozoa have special haunts, and favour distinct 
habitats. 
In their creeping or plasmodium stage, different species 
require different food ; for example, some always feed within 
decaying wood and on particular kinds of wood ; others live 
among dead leaves, or on the fallen needles of conifers or among 
