164 PLANT LIFE 
proportion to the bulk of the fungus, the 
better this process of absorption will go on. 
Consequently, we can easily understand that, 
up to a certain point, the simpler the structure, 
and the more independent the individual 
mycelial hyphe are of one another, the more 
thoroughly the plant is adapted to explore its 
nutrient surroundings and to absorb its food. 
As with the root-hairs of a root, increase of 
surface is the keynote of the performance. 
We find that all non-green plants tend towards 
this adapted simplicity of organisation, though 
the higher green plants have far to go before 
they can shake off the shackles of complexity. 
It is only from an anthropomorphic stand- 
point, then, that we can regard these plants 
as merely degraded or degenerate, for they 
are just as accurately adapted to obtain 
their more specialised form of food as is the 
complex green plant in relation to its simpler 
sources of nutrition. 
Furthermore, from this physiological point 
of view, the fungi are even more complex 
than their green ancestors, for they do not 
merely absorb, but they also profoundly 
influence the nature of the substratum in 
which they live by means of the ferments 
and other substances which they excrete. 
Some of these non-green plants show an almost 
diabolical ingenuity of physiological action, 
as, for example, when some of the parasites, 
by emitting an attractive excretion, cause 
their victims to actually grow towards them, 
