32 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF FUNGI 



like Vaucheria. This resemblance consists of the coenocytic char- 

 acter of the protoplasm, in the mode or formation of the oospores and 

 the production of motile, endogenous asexual spores. It was there- 

 fore beheved for some time that the Phycomycetes had been de- 

 rived from green algae which had become saprophytic. Similarly a. 

 resemblance was traced between the formation of ascospores in the 

 Ascomycetes and the sexual reproduction in the red algae, and the 

 Basidiomycetes were supposed to have had an independent origin. 

 More recently, however, many mycologists have thought of fungi 

 as a group which has evolved as a separate line from a primitive 

 unicellular form, probably a flagellated protozoan. Some of the 

 Archimycetes show resemblances to the colorless flagellates. It is 

 believed that there has been a continuous evolution from such simple 

 forms to the higher types of Phycomycetes. In addition, the origin 

 of the Ascomycetes has been sought in the Phycomycetes and the 

 origin of the Basidiomycetes in the Ascomycetes. The alternate 

 mononucleate or multinucleate and binucleate mycelium of the Basid- 

 iomycetes and Ascomycetes and the analogies between the clamp 

 connections of the former and the crozier apparatus of the latter 

 point to a close relationship between these two classes. It is thought 

 by some that the fungi thus represent a single independent line of 

 descent from the protozoa and that their resemblance to algae is cir- 

 cumstantial. 



LITERATURE 



For the bacteriologist whose interest in the Eumycetes has been aroused 

 by the preceding chapter, or who feels a compulsion out of a sense of duty to 

 make a further study of the true fungi, the following suggestions are made. In 

 the first place, mycology is a science that had advanced further, in many re- 

 spects, by the time that Pasteur and Koch had founded bacteriology, in 1900, 

 than bacteriology has advanced today. Also there are probably at least as many 

 individuals doing research today on pure and applied mycology as are working 

 on problems in bacteriology. Thus there is a larger literature and more facts 

 are known. But this does not make the subject more difficult; rather the 

 contraiy, since monographic treatments have to a great extent combined and 

 systematized what has been discovered and, in spite of the seemingly unneces- 

 sarily large vocabulary, the covering up a lack of knowledge by vocabulary is, 

 in general, a thing of the past as far as mycology is concerned. We bacteri- 

 ologists (including immunologists) can decide for ourselves whether or not 

 this is true in our own science. In general, many of the doubtful points in 

 pure mycology have been confirmed or rejected, whereas in bacteriology, cor- 

 responding features are a subject of investigation, polemics, or conjecture. 

 This does not mean that all is known. Perusal of current botanical journals 



