BRITISH FUNGI 



PART I 



CHAPTER I 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



In a book dealing with fungi, naturally the first question to be 

 asked by an intelligent student is : What is a fungus ? This sug- 

 gests other questions : Is a fungus a plant, and, if so, why so ? 

 Now it must be admitted that these may prove to be very difficult 

 questions to answer. Much depends, in fact all depends, on the 

 relative amount of knowledge possessed b}' the inquirer. If a 

 general elementary knowledge of the main differences between 

 plants and animals has already been attained, the answer is fairly 

 easy to grasp ; if no knowledge on these points is possessed, no 

 answer to the queries can be given that can convey any clear 

 meaning. Assuming it is understood, as a general rule, that animals 

 require organic foocl, that is, food which is the direct result of some 

 living organism, as when a cat eats a mouse, a cow eats a cabbage, 

 or when we eat bread ; and that green plants are practically inde- 

 pendent of food that is the direct product of life, but obtain what 

 they require from the atmosphere, and from substances dissolved 

 in water absorbed by the root. If so much is known, it will probably 

 also be known that the green colouring matter called chlorophyll, 

 present in the great majority of plants, is the substance that 

 enables plants, under the influence of light, to convert the inorganic 

 substances obtained from the air and the soil into plant flesh. Now 

 fungi differ from the great majority of plants in having no chloro- 

 phyll, hence they cannot utilize inorganic materials obtained from 

 the air, and from the soil, as food, but require organic food ; some 

 grow as parasites on living plants, others obtain their food from 

 dead plants, wood, etc., or from humus or manure, all these being 

 the direct result of life. In so far fungi agree with animals. On 

 the other hand, fungi do not at all agree with animals in structure, 

 or in their mode of reproduction, etc., but, on the other hand, 

 fungi do agree in structure with plants having chlorophyll ; hence 



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 H, C. State Co«e«« 



