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(literally leaf-green). It is this function possessed by green 

 plants that serves to distinguish them from all other living 

 things. The fungi having no chlorophyll in their composi- 

 tion, are unable to perform this function, and hence must 

 depend for their food supply on some form of matter al- 

 ready organized. Some live on decaying matter, and are 

 known as saprophytes: such are the toadstools and jouff- 

 balls that grow about muck piles, or decaying stumps, or 

 buried roots, and the bracket-fungi on dead or fallen tree 

 trunks; such also are the moulds that grow on bread, pre- 

 served fruits, and other forms of food; such also is the 

 microscopic yeast plant that causes alcoholic fermentation, 

 and is used alike in the manufacture of bread and beer; 

 such are many of the still more minute bacteria that are the 

 cause of decay and putrefaction. Other fungi secure their 

 food from the living tissues of plants and animals, and are 

 called parasitic fungi; a few eve a are parasitic on other 

 fungi. 



Fungi are unable to organize inorganic food, because 

 they contain no chlorophyll. Whatever may be their color, 

 they may be characterized as not green.* The more ordi- 

 nary color of fungi is white, but black, brown, blue, yellow 

 and various shades of red are not uncommon. 



Since it happens that not all parasitic plants are fungi, 

 we should limit the definition of the group still further by 

 the statement that fungi reproduce their kind by micro- 

 scopic spores, and never by seeds. 



Spores Different from Seeds. 



As the distinction between seed and spore is not well un- 

 derstood, it may be well to contrast them. If we cut open 

 the seed of a squash, apple or bean, we will find that the in- 



*Oei'tain apparent exceptions to this rule are familiar in the ordi- 

 nary green mould, the gr -en fungus of decaying wood which stains 

 fallen timber, and a few others. In all these cases the green color is 

 •due to other substances than chlorophyll, and in fact the shade of 

 green presented is different from the familiar green of ordinary veg- 

 ■etation. 



