CHAPTER XIII 
PHYLUM VII. CARPOMYCETEAE 
THE HIGHER FUNGI 
328. The plants here brought together are all hystero- 
phytes, being destitute of chlorophyll or any other simi- 
lar coloring matter with physiological significance. In 
accordance with the theory underlying the treatment of 
all plant phyla in this book these hysterophytes must 
have been derived from some of the preceding holophytes, 
and it seems most probable that they came from the plants 
in the phylum immediately preceding this one. In other 
words, it is here assumed that the Higher Fungi are allied 
in structure to the Red Algae, and that the striking differ- 
ences between them are correlated principally with the 
change from the holophytic to the hysterophytic habit, 
but it must be remembered also that the Red Algae are 
aquatic plants, while nearly all the Higher Fungi have 
adapted themselves to terrestrial or aerial (non-aquatic) 
conditions. 
329. The Higher Fungi may be characterized as fol- 
lows: They are filamentous plants, whose cells are always 
without chlorophyll. Visible protoplasmic connections 
between cell and cell are common. The filaments are 
mostly isolated, but sometimes they are compacted into 
parenchymatous masses, yet in few cases is there a con- 
spicuous plant body comparable to the body of the re- 
lated chlorophyll-bearing plants. This obsolescence of 
the plant body results from the abandonment of the holo- 
phytic habit, which has rendered chlorophyll-bearing 
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