SHOOTS OF ALGJE. 



71 



I have previously insisted upon the fact that in the simplest Algae, as in the 

 simplest Fungi, the segmentation of the vegetative body into root and shoot does 

 not occur. It has already been mentioned, also, that the accepted description of 

 the segmentation of more highly developed Fungi into mycelium and fructification, 

 signifies essentially, from our point of view, nothing further than the segmentation 

 into root and shoot ; only, we have here to do with plants devoid of chloro- 

 phyll, in which, as in all other plants devoid of chlorophyll, the shoot is no 



FIG. 67.—Srtr£-asstim vuls-at-e (natura! size). Cp. the 



Fig. eS.—Ge/iriim 



Fig. fx).—Delesseria sangi<iiitn ; 

 leaf-like shoot, with anchoring root 

 below. 



longer an organ of assimilation, but only the bearer of reproductive cells, as 

 which, with few exceptions, it also protrudes above the nourishing substratum. 

 In the large common Mushrooms and Toadstools of the woods and fields, the 

 stalked pileus, on the under side of which the spores arise, is thus the fructi- 

 fication, or, according to our view, the shoot reduced to a mere fructification; 

 the proper root-system being extended in the earth as the mycelium. That 

 we are here again concerned with innumerable varieties of form, is evident 



