THE FUNGI 161 
CHAPTER XIV 
THE FUNGI 
WE may now turn our attention to a very 
different type of vegetation, the members 
of which are wholly, or almost wholly, lacking 
in chlorophyll. The fungi and bacteria are 
typical representatives of these non-green 
organisms, but a certain number of the 
higher flowering plants have also departed 
from the way of their ancestors, and have 
lost their green colour. It is a significant 
fact, which strikes us at the very outset, that 
every one of these colourless flowering plants 
live on ready-formed organic matter derived 
either from dead or still living organisms. 
As a class, the plants which lack chlorophyll 
are distinguished by the relatively simple 
structure of their vegetative organs, although 
their reproductive organs may, on the other 
hand, be very complex. For example, the 
somewhat elaborate objects popularly known 
as “fungi” are not the vegetative bodies of 
the fungi at all, but only their fructifications. 
Flowering plants which have adopted the 
non-chlorophyll habit similarly tend to be- 
come greatly modified in everything except 
their reproductive organs—the flowers and 
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