IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 47 



along with the lower algoid forms, with which they have 

 close affinities to the group of Protophyta. When the 

 mycelium originates, as is frequently the case, in a watery 

 fluid, it so precisely resembles the filamentous growth of 

 some of the algoid Protophyta, that we find many of them 

 described as such in botanical works. Thus the white- 

 felted mass, which is apt to form in ink, is described as an 

 Alga under the name of Hygrocrocis atramenti, but if its 

 progress be watched, it is clearly seen to be only the sub- 

 merged mycelium of some common form of mould, and it is 

 the same with the so-called " vinegar plant." The charac- 

 teristic fructification appears only on those branches which 

 emerge from the fluid, and generally consists of naked 

 sporules attached in various fashions to the ends of elon- 

 gated filaments. Even the genus Achlya, commonly re- 

 garded as a well-established alga, and having certainly 

 many points of analogy with Vauckeria, as already noticed,* 

 is regarded by Berkeley as only a fluid-born mycelium of 

 Mucor, a well-known variety of mould.*[- This view is 

 hardly reconcilable with the presence of sexual organs in 

 Achlya, which the researches of Pringsheim seems to indi- 

 cate. It is to be remarked, however, that these observa- 

 tions do not actually demonstrate the existence of sper- 

 matic particles in the organs, which, from their analogy 

 with those of Vaucheria, he was inclined to consider as 

 antheridia. 



If any of the group of Fungi now referred to are rightly to 

 be considered as allied to the Protophyta, we should look for 

 some modification of conjugation, either in the submerged 

 or the aerial filaments ; and it is so far in support of such a 



* V. Infra., p. 108. 



f Berkeley's Cryptogamic Botany, pp. 132, 148, 295. The authors of 

 the Micrographic Dictionary mention (Art. Mucor) that their experi- 

 ments have hitherto afforded only negative results. 



