PLANT-LIFEGENERATION. 247 



Algae, green with chlorophyll and hence cap- 

 able of preparing their own food, and the 

 Fungi which have no chlorophyll and hence 

 are parasitic on other organisms. The fa- 

 mous Bacterion is a Thallophyte, a fungus 

 parasite, unicellular, capable of enormous 

 multiplication by simple fission, and in some 

 of its forms is the smallest of extant organ- 

 isms, being unseen by the microscope though 

 known to exist as a cause of disease which 

 may be counteracted by antidotes. 



So much for the thallus, that prophetic 

 little blob of life-slime, the primal Plant pre- 

 figuring in its way all the rest, being too the 

 individuated starting-point of the whole line 

 of vegetal evolution, as far as science now 

 sees. The next great group, the Mosses (Bry- 

 ophytes) still keep the thallus, but in a state 

 of decided transition, especially as regards 

 the Generative Process. For sex now begins 

 with organs, male and female (antheridium 

 and archegonium), yet accompanied with a 

 sexless individual. Here the curious fact ap- 

 pears: the sexual produces the asexual and 

 the asexual produces the sexual which fact 

 is known as alternation of generations. This 

 dual Generative Process is very significant, 

 reaching forward to the permanently sexed 

 higher Plant, and then dropping back to the 

 more or less simple fissiparism of the Thallo- 



