I5o ABOUT MOSSES AND LICHENS. [CHAP. 



were it not that, quite recently, we read in an ele- 

 mentary botany, intended for use in schools, that 

 " Lichens are true Fungi ; they are found preying 

 upon families of Algae. ... When the Algae are freed 

 from the Fungi which imprisoned them, their growth 

 proceeds; but the Fungi cannot live without the 

 Algae nourishing them." Nothing could be more 

 absurd than the notion of teaching 'children as facts 

 that which has been termed " sensational romance" 

 by every well-known practical fungologist and lichen- 

 ologist. The enquiring reader who is curious to know 

 what has been said of this theory, pro and con, should 

 see an article by the Rev. J. M. Crombie in the "Popu- 

 lar Science Review," July 



' 8 /4, ako "f V Mr. 

 W. Archer in " Quarterly 

 Journal of Microscopical 

 Science/' vol. xiii. p. 217. 

 What we' have in the 

 Liverworts termed a frond. 



FIG. 113. 



; ' in the Lichens is known 



as a thallus. Fig. 113 is a transverse action of a 

 thallus, or, rather, a portion of a thallus surmounted 

 by an apothecium (Ap). This latter is analogous to 

 the archegonium in certain other plants considered in 

 the present Chapter. It contains a large number of 

 sporangia embedded in it (Sfi). Other organs analo- 

 gous to antheridia are found embedded in the thallus, 

 and opening on the surface by pores. They contain 

 little filamentous bodies, the Spermatia, like anthero- 

 zoids. Fig. 1 14 represents a lichen popularly known 

 as the Cup-moss (Cenomyce pyxidata). 



