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 field 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 Diachaea
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