Vegetal Evolution. 133 



generally are built up of a series of cells placed end on 

 end. The forms of fungi are infinite ; but few represent 

 the ideal vegetal type, with roots, stem and branches, 

 save rudimentarily. 



The number of species of fungi is, from their micro- 

 scopic character and their universal distribution, 

 necessarily unknown ; but as over a thousand species 

 of one class alone (mushrooms) grow in Great Britain, 

 we may infer their number to be legion. 



(2) Seaweeds, of the order algae, are composed 

 entirely of cells, which become in some cases like 

 elongated tubes. The species macrocystis is of 

 immense size, some plants occasionally measuring 

 from 300 to 700 feet long. A tree seaweed off 

 Patagonia is 10 feet high and 12 inches in circum- 

 ference. Many algae, on the other hand, are micro- 

 scopic — diatoms, for instance. These minute plants 

 were, like bacteria, once classed as animals, but they 

 might now be more advantageously enrolled among 

 a number of organisms (including corals) which are 

 representative of the forms and energy of the whole 

 three kingdoms of nature — mineral, vegetal and 

 animal. Thus they are connected with the mineral 

 world by their beautiful silicious and flinty coatings, 

 strangely marked and wondrously designed ; with the 

 vegetal, because containing cellulose and chlorophyll ; 

 and with the animal, because they conjugate and 

 generate motile spores. They are thus " a materialised 

 trinity." 



The corallines, again, illustrate the transition solely 



