THEIR HABITATS GENERALLY.
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study of Mycetozoa, we may rest assured that the torch-bearers,
if not very a numerous body, are an enthusiastic and ever-in-
creasing one.
II.—The Habitats of the Mycetozoa generally.
What are the haunts of the Mycetozoa, 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
moss, and so on. Thus it comes about that we may expect to
find certain species associated with certain situations.
In the following paper, an attempt is made to classify and
describe the principal types of habitat favoured by Mycetozoa