232 TEXT-BOOK OF FUNGI 



of cytologists is the relationship of these groups to each 

 other. By almost common consent the starting-point of 

 the fungi is represented by the Phycomycetes ; afterwards 

 sequence of origin and relationship is mostly a matter of 

 personal opinion. 



Among modern schemes of classification comprising the 

 whole of the fungi may be mentioned that of Saccardo, 

 as evolved in his Sylloge Fungorum. This is said to be 

 a carpological system, based on the features derived from 

 the sporocarp, but it might more accurately have been 

 defined as a sporological system, as the leading features 

 characterising minor groups, genera, and species turn 

 almost exclusively on characters presented by the spores ; 

 such characters depending on the colour and presence or 

 absence of septa. This applies to the Ascomycetes and 

 the Basidiomycetes. In the Phycomycetes no new ideas 

 are presented. This system, based entirely on characters 

 presented by mature plants, cannot necessarily indicate 

 true affinities, but only features of morphological agree- 

 ment, which in many instances are obviously only coinci- 

 dences or analogies ; but Saccardo did not start with the 

 intention of indicating homologies ; his object was to 

 enable a person to determine the name by which a fungus 

 is known, and thus furnish a fixed starting-point for the 

 research student. In this respect Saccardo has succeeded, 

 so far as the material at his command admitted. 



The fungi in Engler and Prantl's Pflanzenfamilien are 

 not yet completed. Different authors are responsible for 

 the various groups, and as each author appears to have 

 followed his own ideas, there is a lack of continuity in the 

 scheme of classification as compared with Saccardo ; never- 

 theless the work, so far as completed, is a valuable addition 



