CHAPTER II. — DIFFERENTIATION OF THE THALLUS. I 7 



It does not fall within the scope of this work to go into the details of chemical 

 analysis ; the reader is referred for these to — 



Husemann und Hilger, Die Pflanzenreiche, Aufl. 2. See also the first edition 



of A. and Th. Husemann. 

 Fluckiger, Pharmacognosie d. Pflanzenreichs, Aufl. 2, Berlin, 1883. The work 



contains exact accounts of Claviceps, Polyporus officinalis, Cetraria, &c. 

 G. Dragendorff, Die qualitative u. quantitative Analyse von Pfianzen u. 



Pflanzentheilen, Gottingen, 1882. 

 J. KoniGj Chemische Zusammensetzung d. menschlichen Nahrungs- u. Genuss- 



mittel, Berlin, 1878 (Edible mushrooms). 



CHAPTER II. Differentiation of the Thallus. 



1. GENERAL SURVEY. 



Section IV. The thallus of the greater part of the Fungi which are composed of 

 hyphae is differentiated into two chief parts, a vegetative part known by the name of 

 mycelium since the time of Trattinick 1 , and the sporophore" 1 (Fruchttrager, receptaculum 

 of Leveilld, encarpium of Trattinick), which bears and produces the organs of repro- 

 duction and springs often in great numbers from the mycelium. It need scarcely be said 

 that there are many gradations in the sharpness of this differentiation. The views and 

 the terminology drawn from the species in which the differentiation is sharply defined 

 have often been transferred to those in which it is less distinct. In simple 

 filamentous forms, as Protomyces for instance and Entyloma, in which the repro- 

 ductive cells are formed directly as segments of hyphae which are not further 

 differentiated, we speak of these cells being formed directly on the mycelium. In 

 many cases this distinction between mycelium and sporophore may be said to be 

 only arbitrary. 



Owing to the peculiar mode of life of the Lichen-fungi, the differentiation in 

 many of them is to some extent different from that of the rest of the Fungi, 

 and the traditional terminology therefore, which will be considered in Division III, 

 is also different. 



The mycelium is that part of the thallus which spreads in or on the substratum, 

 derives nourishment from it and attaches the Fungus to it. In accordance with these 

 functions it resembles the root-bearing rhizomes of the higher plants, and still more 

 the rhizoids of Mosses in various points of form and growth. The sporophores may 

 be compared to the flowering or fruit-bearing shoots of higher plants in respect of 

 their function to which their form corresponds, and which consists essentially in the 

 formation of organs of reproduction. 



1 Fungi austriaci, 1805. 



2 See note at beginning of section X regarding the use of the term sporophore. 



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