British Funo;i, 



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rotten wooil, and also tlie common musliroom, whereas 

 those that grow upon or within living animals or 

 plants, and from whose tissues their food is derived, 

 are known as parasites; the smut of wheat, hop 

 mildew, potato disease, and '' muscardine,'' or the 

 silkAvorm disease, are examples of the latter class. 

 Connecting links between the two conditions occur, 

 some species possessing the faculty of existing as 

 either parasites or saprophytes, and others are 

 saprophytes during one period and parasites at 

 another. Fungi belong to the group of plants known 

 as CnjptoganUy hence, if we speak of fungi as 

 Cryptogams without cliloropliyll we shall embody the 

 most important characters of the group ; the finer 

 distinctions that separate other groups of cryptogams 

 not possessing chlorophyll^ as the Bacteria and the 

 Myxogastres, will be better understood at a later stage. 

 The tissues of fungi, however compact, consist of 

 rows of cells called hyphse ; these hj-ph^e may consist 

 of very long, continuous cells without transverse 

 walls or septa, or transverse septa may be present, 

 when the hypha consists of a large number of super- 

 posed cells in a single row. Hyphge may be simple 

 or branched, and not unfrequently when two distinct 

 branches meet they grow together, the walls being 

 dissolved at the point of contact, and the contents of 

 the two branches mingle ; in some cases a complicated 

 network is thus produced, or H shaped arrangements 

 occur when two parallel hyphas are united by a branch 

 from one uniting at its point with the other. A 

 peculiar structure resulting from the amalgamation of 

 originally independent parts, forming what are known 



