Fungi. 201 



Fungi are frequently colored, but in no case do they possess the 

 green chlorophyl cells. Their organs, which chiefly relate to the repro- 

 ductive function, are often curious and elaborate. They have neither 

 leaves nor roots. Instead of roots they have fibrous organs like suckers, 

 which penetrate into the tissues of the host to receive and convey the 

 nutrient fluids. These fibres are collectively called the Mycelium. 

 Where the Mycelium penetrates the soil it still does not take up min- 

 eral matters as a plant does, but only juices of decaying vegetable or 

 other organic products. 



The fungi, or Mushrooms, belong to that series of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom called the Cryptogamic. This series includes, besides the 

 Mushrooms, the Mosses, Lichens, Liverworts, Sea-weeds, or Algae, and 

 Ferns or Brakes. The Mushrooms are divided into six families, and 

 these are subdivided into orders to the number of thirty-two in all,* and 

 these again into a great number of genera and species, all bearing 

 names of a size out of all proportion to themselves, but generally sig- 

 nificant of some function or structure. 



In the first family (the Hymenomycetes ) are found the Agarics, 

 which are known to everybody as the umbrella-shaped mushrooms and 

 toad-stools. The slender fibres of their Mycelium traverses the fat soil, 

 and there is a thick stem surmounted by the cap or pileus. On the un- 

 derside of the pileus are suspended the gills, or lamella, like little cur- 

 tains hung by one edge and distributed like rays or spokes running 

 from the center to the edge. There is a delicate membrane spread over 

 the under surface of the pileus following the indentations made by the 

 gills, and covering their sides so that it appears in shape like a folded 

 fan. This is the hymeneum or spore-bearing membrane, and the spores 

 drop out of it when ripe. The difference between a spore and a seed 

 proper, is this : A spore is a simple cell formed by the union of a male 

 and female germ containing ( probably undifferentiated protoplasm, but) 

 no starch or sugar. A seed is a more advanced and differentiated struc- 

 ture, because beginning as a cell formed by the union of the male and 

 female elements, its development and differentiation has begun, and by 

 the time the seed is ripe the embryo of the new plant is formed within 

 it, and about the embryo is deposited a quantity of starchy or other nu- 

 tritive matter, which is to be consumed by the young plant after it be- 

 gins to germinate. The spore cannot have this deposit because its 

 parents have no machinery for its elaboration they eat, but parasite- 

 like save nothing besides the spore don't need it, for its destiny is to 

 feed where the table is already spread with organic food a seed feeds 

 on minerals after it is weaned. A spore never does. 



*This is according to M. Cooke, from whose work on fungi many of the facts in this 

 chapter are derived. 



