. DEDICAT .
. DISCIPULUS .

"Ihr naht euch wieder schwankende Gestalten,
Die frueh sich einst dem trueben Blick gezeigt."

GOETHE.

"Diese Kinder der Natur, welche aus einer ungeformten Gallert, und einem
unsichtbaren Saamen entstehen, sind im stande, in dem sie sich nach und
nach entwickeln und ihre scheinbar nachlaessige Bildung genau beobachten
(lassen), eben so sehr als die schoenste Pflanze, einem empfindenden
Herzen die tiefe Achtung und das paradiesische Vernuegen zu verschaffen,
welches einzig die Betrachtung der Heere der Natur und ihre
gleichbleibende Erhaltung durch eine ewige Kraft hervorbringen kann."

A. J. G. C. BATSCH 1783.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE ix

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xiii

BIBLIOGRAPHY xv

INTRODUCTORY 1

THE MYXOMYCETES 17

ADDENDA 282

INDEX OF GENERA 289

INDEX OF SPECIES 290

PLATES, WITH EXPLANATIONS 301

CORRIGENDA

The indulgent student will please notice the following for the new
edition _North American Slime Moulds_--

On p. 63, No. 17, read _Physarum megalosporum_ Macbr. Last line should
read 1917 Physarum _melanospermum_ Sturgis, _Mycologia_, Vol. IX, p.
323.

On p. 67, last line but one, at the end, read, p. 323.

On p. 67, insert just before No. 23, Vicinity of
Philadelphia,--_Bilgram_.

On p. 327, Plate XIII, lacks numbers. These may readily be supplied by
consulting descriptive text.

On p. 344, in explanation figure 2, last word read hour.

On p. 346, for name of species read _Fuligo rufa_ Pers., p. 28.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION[1]

The present work has grown out of a monograph entitled _Myxomycetes of
Eastern Iowa_, published by the present author about eight years ago.
The original work was intended chiefly for the use of the author's own
pupils; but interest in the subject proved much wider than had been
supposed, and a rather large edition of that little work was
speedily exhausted. At that time literature on the subject in
question--lite