MOSSES AXD LICHENS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. bd 



and leaves. The green dust which grows on flower-pots in conserva- 

 tories is one of the simplest forms of these plants; the green skeins 

 of slender "water-silk" which we find so abundantly in slow streams 

 and ditches is another form; while the vast fields of seaweed consti- 

 tute a third. Many of these plants are known as algae, a name espe- 

 cially given to the so-called sea-mosses, but which in fact are not 

 mosses at all. Therefore, beautiful though they may be, we can not 

 include them among the true mosses of our coast. 



The alga3 are all self-supporters, having green chlorophyll bodies 

 within their substance, by means of which they are able to extract 

 proper elements from water, air, and mineral matter, and combine 

 these elements into vegetable food-stuffs, such as starch and cellulose. 

 In some, it is true, the green coloring matter is obscured by other 

 tints, especially by red pigments, but it may often be revealed by first 

 removing the intervening chromic matter. 



The other great division of the thallus plants exhibits far different 

 characteristics. In shape and appearance, indeed, they may not differ 

 materially from some of the algae, but in their mode of life the dif- 

 ference is most marked. 



This second division includes the fungi, an innumerable swarm 

 of living organisms, probably far outnumbering all other forms of 

 life put together. We frequently think of mushrooms and toadstools 

 when fungi are mentioned, and we think rightly, for such they are. 

 But the toadstools are the giants of the race, and are no more to be 

 considered as the exclusive or even average specimens of fungi than 

 elephants and whales should be judged by a visitor from another planet 

 as the exclusive or average forms of animal life upon the surface of 

 the earth. All the molds are fungi, so are the yeast plants, and so 

 too, are the awful billions of bacteria, objects so minute that a powerful 

 microscope is required to discern their form. Some of the fungi are 

 troublesome, a few are malignant, but the great majority are either 

 neutral or positively beneficial to the higher forms of life. 



The great characteristic of the fungi is that they are destitute of 

 the green chlorophyll, and therefore can not manufacture food from 

 the elements, but must take it second-hand, as it were, as men and all 

 other animals always do. And, like animals again, some fungi take 

 their food from living organisms, and are therefore called parasites, 

 while the majority feast upon lifeless organic remains. The bracket- 

 fungus which is so often seen on old trees and stumps tells us that 

 the part on which it is growing is no more alive. 



Molds do not usually appear on living matter. Mushrooms thrive 

 in rich, decaying refuse. Bacteria, for the most part, produce the 

 decay of that which is already dead, though some species are ever ready 



