THE FUNGI 161 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE FUNGI 



WE may now turn our attention to a very 

 different type of vegetation, the members 

 of which are wholly, or almost wholly, lacking 

 in chlorophyll. The fungi and bacteria are 

 typical representatives of these non-green 

 organisms, but a certain number of the 

 higher flowering plants have also departed 

 from the way of their ancestors, and have 

 lost their green colour. It is a significant 

 fact, which strikes us at the very outset, that 

 every one of these colourless flowering plants 

 live on ready-formed organic matter derived 

 either from dead or still living organisms. 



As a class, the plants which lack chlorophyll 

 are distinguished by the relatively simple 

 structure of their vegetative organs, although 

 their reproductive organs may, on the other 

 hand, be very complex. For example, the 

 somewhat elaborate objects popularly known 

 as " fungi " are not the vegetative bodies of 

 the fungi at all, but only their fructifications. 

 Flowering plants which have adopted the 

 non-chlorophyll habit similarly tend to be- 

 come greatly modified in everything except 

 their reproductive organs the flowers and 



