' CHAPTER II. 



• On the General Features of Fungi. 



The Vegetable Kingdom is naturally divided into two grand 

 divisions. These are the Phaenogamia, or flowering plants, and 

 the Cryptogamia, or flowerless plants. The difference between 

 these two divisions is readily perceived, though it must be said 

 that the border-line between them is obscure. There are plants 

 that none but a skilled botanist could certainly determine as 

 belonging to one side or the other. Belonging to the Pheenogamia 

 are the trees, slorubs, and various herbs most useful to man. The 

 second division appears to contain little that is of value to us, and 

 is therefore less appreciated popularly. But we have now to do 

 with it. 



• The Ci'yptogamia, or flowerless plants, are recognised as form- 

 ing two comprehensive classes — Acrogens and Thallogens.^ The 

 technical division is constituted by the characters of the fructifi- 

 cation. But as this would need elaborate explanation, it will be 

 enough, in this place, to remark a more simple distinction. 



■Acrogens are plants of more or less herbaceous character ; they 

 possess foliaceous appendages, and exhibit a green tint. In these 

 respects they approximate to Phasnogams. They comprise the 

 Ferns, Mosses, Horsetails, Liverworts, etc. 



- Thallogens are plants without any foliage ; they are leafless, 

 and they are rarely of a green tint. They are subdivided into 

 Algales and Mycetales. The first of these, the Algales, are plants 

 deriving nutriment fi-om water, in which they are submerged. 

 Sea-weeds are the tj-pe most readily recognisable. Mycetales 

 comprise Lichens and Fungi, the main difference between which 

 is that Lichens derive their nutriment principally from the air, 

 whereas Fungi draw nourishment chiefly from the substances on 

 which they grow. 



1 Berkeley: Cnjptogamic Botany ■ 



