53U 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



The remaining classes of Cellular Cryptogams are grouped under the 

 divisional name of 



THALLOPHYTA. 



Class I. Fungi. 

 II. Characeaa. Stoneworts. 

 III. Rhodophyceae. Red Alga?. 

 IV. Phaiophycese. Brown Algae. 

 V. Chlorophyceae. Green Algae. 



Class VI. Conjugatoe. Conjugates. 

 VII. Peridineae. Dinoflagellates. 

 VIII. Diatomeaa. Diatoms. 

 IX. Scbizophyta. Fission Plants. 

 X. Myxomycetes. Slime Fungi. 



P*olo & y] [E. Step. 



FIG. 674. CUP Moss (Cladonia pyxidata). 



A familiar Lichen common on mossy banks. The trumpet-shaped cups spring from a small flat thallus 

 and bear apothecii around their mouths. 



The plants of the first class, the Fungi, are characterized by a total 

 absence of chlorophyll and starch. Two distinct portions of a fungus are 

 recognized, the vegetative or mycele, and the reproductive or sporophore. 

 That to which we apply the term "mushroom " or "toadstool" is the sporo- 

 phore : the mycele consists of a network of white threads ramifying in the 

 vegetable humus below. Fungi have no roots, properly speaking, though 

 the mycele fulfils their office, both as absorbers of nutriment and for 

 purposes of attachment. As they possess no chlorophyll, they are imable 

 to decompose carbon dioxide, and therefore have to obtain their carbon in 

 an already organized condition. This they get from dead or decaying plants 

 and animals or from organic products, or by attacking living! organisms. 



