132 From Matter to Man. 



and until they are led to read up the subject have no 

 notion of the wonderful world of plant life in the 

 planet and unconscious that they have even in- 

 cipient rivals in intelligence and attainments among 

 the vegetal s. 



In order to dispel this ignorance to a certain extent, 

 and help at the same time to demonstrate the accuracy 

 of our contentions, we shall give a rapid survey of the 

 more curious species of plants, their forms and 

 functions, from the simplest to the most complex. 



(i) The lowest class of vegetals are the fungi, yet 

 some, through their highly specialised functions, 

 approach nearer to animals than many flowering 

 plants. 



All fungi are either saprophytic (feeding on dead 

 or decaying vegetal and animal matter) or parasitic 

 (feeding on living plants and animals). The sapro- 

 phytes are the vultures of vegetal existence, living 

 solely upon vegetal carrion. In a sense, therefore, 

 they are not noxious and useless, for, like the vultures 

 in the tropics, and the dogs in Constantinople, they 

 are the scavengers of vegetalia. The automatic cause 

 of this mode of life is their non-possession of chloro- 

 phyll (the green pigment of vegetals). Being unable, 

 without chlorophyll, to assimilate carbon compounds 

 for themselves, they are forced to rob it from dead or 

 decaying plants. 



Few fungi attain to any great size, while many are 

 microscopic. Though the lowest fungus (pliycomycctes) 

 consists of one single densely branching cell, fungi 



