CHAPTER XII 
ABOUT FUNGI. 
FUNGI are an important class of flowerless plants, 
belonging to the division called Thallogens, those 
plants which have no distinction between stem and 
leaf. They consist wholly of cells, and are distin- 
cuished from other plants by the entire absence of 
chlorophyll (see Chapter II.) from their cells, which 
are also devoid of starch. Instead of absorbing car- 
bon from the atmosphere, as do green plants, they 
absorb oxygen and give off carbon, in this respect 
resembling animals. Some of 
p the lower forms were described 
@~ in Chapter I.; we shall have 
3) occasion again to refer to several . 
f ® of these. 
g 
The Yeast-plant (Zorula) we 
may take as a type of the fungus 
Pa om cell. Here, in fig. 134, we have 
Fic. 134. enlarged representations of it. 
At A we have a single plant,— 
a simple cell, consisting of a cellulose wall (a) and a | 
central mass of protoplasm (0), with a clear space or 
vacuole (¢). In this it does not differ from ordinary 
vegetable cells, but its difference may be seen on 
rg 
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