PERSONAL VIEWS ON PHYLOGENY 183 



means of antherozoids, whatever line evolution might have 

 eventually drifted into, depending on surroundings. But I 

 believe there is no evidence of any such second break. It 

 is important to keep in view the fact that the complete 

 obliteration of the antherozoid, even after its period of 

 functional value under the form of a motile organ had 

 passed, was slow ; nevertheless its presence in Gymno- 

 sperms does not prove that this group is anything more 

 than one link in the chain of evolution of a single series of 

 forms evolved from one break from the algae. 



To my mind the fungi present a parallel case to the 

 above. The Phycomycetes are most nearly in touch with 

 the algae ; there is the same general non-septate, vegetative 

 structure, the same method of fertilisation, aquatic habit, 

 and every character in common, save in the absence of 

 chlorophyll in the fungi ; this last feature in reality con- 

 stitutes the only difference between many of the members 

 of the Phycomycetes and such algae as Vaucheria and 

 allied forms. 



Long before we reach the end of the Phycomycetes or 

 primitive group of fungi the effects of changed surround- 

 ings are observable, more especially in the gradual evolu- 

 tion of a new phase of development, analogous to the 

 sporophore in chlorophyllose plants, for the purpose of 

 utilising aerial conditions for perpetuating and disseminat- 

 ing the species. This new structure has received the name 

 of sporophore or conidiophore, and the reproductive 

 bodies borne by it are of asexual origin, as opposed to the 

 sexually produced reproductive bodies borne by the primi- 

 tive structure as it started from the algae. During the 

 extension and differentiation of the Phycomycetes into 

 genera the conidiophore phase became by far the most 



