Survey of Plant Kingdom 129 



Examples: Penicillium (Fig. 39), Aspergillus (Fig. 38), cup fungi 

 such as Peziza (Fig. 40), yeasts (Fig. 37), powdery mildews, and blights, 

 etc. 



(3) Class Basidiomycetes. — The basidium (club) fungi belong 

 to the class Basidiomycetes (ba sid i o mai -se' tez) (Gr. basidium, club or 

 base; mycetes, fungi) because they produce basidiospores on club-shaped 

 basidia (ba -sid' i a) (Gr. basis, base) . They all possess organized nuclei; 

 they all are constructed of filamentous hyphae which are septate (cross 

 walls). In some instances the hyphae may be rather closely compacted 

 and the interhyphal spaces may even be filled in with rather solid sub- 

 stances, as in the case of the bracket (shelf) fungi (Fig. 42). 



In certain species other types of asexual spores are produced. For 

 example, certain types of smuts produce conidiospores somewhat like 

 those produced by certain ascomycetes. In the corn smut (Fig. 66), 

 the fungi produce heavy-walled, dark-colored smut spores called chlamy- 

 dospores (klam' i do spor) (Gr. chlamys, cloak; sporos, spore). In the 

 black stem rust of wheat (Puccinia graminis) several varieties of spores 

 (Fig. 67) are formed: reddish-orange, summer spores known as uredo- 

 spores (u -re' do spor) (Gr. uredo, blight; sporos, spore), brownish-black 

 winter spores known as telios pores (te'liospor) (Gr. telios, end; sporos, 

 spore), small pycniospores (pik' ni o spor) (Gr. pyknos, crowded), and 

 spring spores called aeciospores (e' si o spor) (Gr. aecium, injury). 

 These various types of spores are considered in greater detail in a later 

 chapter. 



Examples: Mushrooms (Fig. 41), bracket fungi (Fig. 42), smuts 

 Fig. 66), and rusts (Fig. 67). 



SUBKINGDOM EMBRYOPHYTA 



General Characteristics of Embryophytds 



The Embryophytes constitute the remainder of the plant kingdom, 

 and their representatives, in general, are more complex than the Thallo- 

 phytes. Embryophyta (em bri -of i ta) (Gr. embryon, embryo; phyta, 

 plants) produce a multicellular embryo from the fertilized egg (zygote) 

 which is parasitic for some time in the female sex organ (in the gameto- 

 phyte in higher plants) . They all produce multicellular sex organs which 

 are surrounded by a sterile, protective jacket layer. The male sex organ 

 is the multicellular antheridium (an ther -id' i um) (Gr. anthos, flower; 

 idion, diminutive), while the female sex organ is the multicellular arche- 

 gonium (ar -ke go' ni um) (Gr. arche, beginning; gonos, offspring) . The 



