120 Plant Biology 



heteroSj other; trophe, food or nourishment). Because they must secure 

 foods from outside sources, fungi must live in an environment in which 

 there is a certain amount of moisture. Heterotrophic fungi may be 

 (1) saprophytes (sap' ro fite) (Gr. sapros, dead; phyton, plant) living 

 on dead organic materials or (2) parasites (pa' ra site) (Gr. para, beside; 

 sitos, food) living in, or on, the body of another living plant or animal. 

 A few species of fungi are autotrophic, and they will be considered later. 

 Fungi lack true leaves, stems, and roots; they do not form multicellular 

 embryos; they lack true vascular (conducting) tissues (phloem and 

 xylem) which are present in higher plants. Included in the "fungi" are 

 bacteria, slime molds, yeasts, bread molds, water molds, mushrooms, 

 bracket fungi, Penicillium, smuts, rusts, etc. The bacteria differ from 

 the slime molds and other fungi in that the former are unicellular, with 

 smaller cells, and without an organized nucleus. 



6. Phylum Schizomycophyta (skiz o my -kof i ta) (Gr. schizo, split or 

 fission; mykes, fungus; phyta, plants). — The bacteria (bak -ter' i a) (Gr. 

 bakterion, small rod) are simple, unicellular (microscopic) plants without 

 chlorophyll so that a great majority of them must secure foods from out- 

 side sources, although a few are able to manufacture foods by chemo- 

 synthesis or by photosynthesis (Fig. 34). The method of nutrition for 

 a majority of bacteria is heterotrophic (het ero -trof ik) (Gr. heteros, 

 other; trophe, food or nourishment), securing their foods from outside 

 sources. Consequently, they may be (1) saprophytes (sap'rofites) (Gr. 

 sapros, dead; phyton, plant) which obtain foods from dead, nonliving 

 organic materials or (2) parasites (pa' ra site) (Gr. para, beside; sitos, 

 food) which live in, or on, the living bodies of plants or animals. In the 

 latter instance, if a diseased condition is produced, they are known as 

 pathogenic bacteria (path o -jen' ik) (Gr. pathos, suffering; genos, pro- 

 duce). A rather small group of bacteria can synthesize organic foods 

 from carbon dioxide and other simple inorganic substances. Conse- 

 quently, they are autotrophic (o to -trof ik) (Gr. autos, self; trophe, 

 nourish). The autotrophic types may be grouped as (1) chemosynthetic 

 (kem o sin -thet' ik) (Gr. chymos, juice; syn, with; tithenai, to place), in 

 which the energy required for the synthesis of foods is derived from the 

 oxidation of certain chemicals, and (2) photosynthetic, in which light 

 supplies the food-forming energy and the pigments are purplish-red, or 

 greenish, but are not chlorophyll. The chemosynthetic and photosyn- 

 thetic bacteria are considered in a later chapter. 



Bacteria are considered to be plants rather than animals ( 1 ) because 

 of their methods of reproduction which resemble those of certain algae 



