MiDDLETON FrxGi*.— Bv R. R. Gates, M. A., Middleton, N. S. 



(Bead Sth Scjjtcmbcr, 1902 ) 



The study ot" oui* Fungi is a part of botanical science to 

 whicli comparatively little attention has hitherto been directed 

 by Canadian botanists, so that Canada is reckoned as one of the 

 regions which is still niycologically unexplored. The absence 

 of chlorophjdl, which has been brought about by the parasitic and 

 saprophytic habits of these plants, distinguishes them from all 

 other members of the plant kingdom ; and perhaps on this 

 account, being considered as the degenerate and depauperate 

 representatives of a once higher type, they have Vjeen accounted 

 of less scientific interest and economic importance than the 

 chlorophyll-bearing plants. 



Investigations of recent years have shown that a relation 

 exists between the mycelium of fungi in the soil, and many of 

 the higher plants. Widely occurring instances of mycorrhiza 

 are known. Thus Janse found that out of seventy-five plants 

 selected at random and examined, sixty-nine had mycelial 

 hyphfe attached to their roots. These hypha3 had replaced the 

 root hairs, root cap, and in some instances the outer layer of the 

 root tissue. Their advantage to the plant over root hairs seems 

 to be a matter of osmotic pressure in facilitating absorption. 



We also have among Chlorophytes, examples of plants which 

 are being still further reduced, so that the whole root has been 

 replaced, the chlorophyll of the leaves being reduced in amount, 

 and the whole plant becoming incipiently saprophytic. This has 

 ■been called Symbiotic Saprophytism, and the isolated tropical 



* This paper was read in the absence of the author by the Corresponding Secretary 

 of the Institute, Dr. A. H. MacKay, who presented a large number of dried specimens, 

 and the compilation of lists of Nova Scotia fungi, which appears on page lii of this 

 volume, with which is consolidated the list of about forty fungi determined by Mr. R. 

 R. Gates, from the vicinity of Middleton, Annapolis County, Xova Scotia. Readers are 

 therefore referred to Dr. MacKay's list for Mr. Gates' catalogue of species. The into- 

 ductory portian only of Mr. Gates' paper appears here, as it forms a useful intro- 

 duction to Dr. MacKay's synopsis. 



(115) 



