520 
REVIEWS. 
“ organs analogous to tlie proembryonal shoots of Charge. 
“ The Charge, therefore, in their general development, pass through 
“ the same stages as the Mosses. They are leafy plants without 
“ main-stem or main-root, their branches, as in the Mosses, origi- 
“ nating laterally either upon other leafy branches, or upon leafless 
“ pro-embryos.” After noticing the points of difference exhibited 
by the Charge and Mosses in the structure of their antheridia and 
the formation of their fruit, Dr. Pringsheim concludes that the former 
must be ranked as a special group of the Muscales, and he adds 
that the discovery of the pro-embryos shows that the Charge, as 
well as the Perns and Mosses, are subject to what seems to be a 
general law, viz., that in all leafy plants the spore can never become 
directly transformed into the vegetative apex of the leafy axis. 
We have but little space left to notice Professor Cienkowski’s 
paper. It relates to the much-vexed question of the systematic po¬ 
sition of the Myxogastric fungi, and is entitled “ Zur Entwickelungs- 
geschichte der Myxomyceten.” 
The results of the author’s observations are :—1. That what he 
calls the Plasmodium, i.e., the motile protoplasmic mass of the 
Myxomycetes, is naked (hilllenlos), and consists of two substances, 
the one, hyaline, highly extensible and contractile, the other 
fluid and granular. 2 That contractile Vacuoles are present in the 
hyaline substance of the plasmodia, in the cells out of which the 
latter originate, as well as in the amoeboid bodies which are formed 
from the latter cells, and which the author calls Myxo-amoebge. 
3. That the plasmodia, especially the Myxo-amoebge, take in foreign 
bodies, as the Amoebge do. 4. That the plasmodium originates 
in the gradual amalgamation of the Myxo-amoebge. 5. That two 
plasmodia of different genera of Myxomycetes never amalgamate. 
Professor Cienkowski is of opinion that the Myxomycetes are 
closely allied to Amoebge, Monads, &c., but that the answer to the 
question wdiether they are animals or fungi, depends more upon the 
observer’s philosophical ideas than on facts. We do not feel dis¬ 
posed to discuss the question here. It is at present a mere matter 
of speculation, although we cannot but agree with M. Tulasne, who 
considers it “ contra omnem verisimilitudinem,’’* that their nature 
should be animal. A paper lately read before the Linnean Society 
contains some observations on the germination of Cribraria inter¬ 
media , which, if correct, show that the germination in that species 
of Myxogaster is by filaments, as in the case of ordinary fungi, a 
fact strongly opposed to the views of those who look upon these 
organisms as animals. Those who take an interest in the contro¬ 
versy, should refer to some recent papers on the subject, published 
by Dr. de Bary, in the Begensburg Flora for 1862, w r here that able 
naturalist, after reviewing the late works on this subject, maintains 
his former opinion, that the Myxogasteres must be excluded from 
the vegetable kingdom. 
* See Selecta Fungorum Carpologia, c. 1. 
