164 PLANT LIFE 



proportion to the bulk of the fungus, the 

 better this process of absorption will go on. 

 Consequently, we can easily understand that, 

 up to a certain point, the simpler the structure, 

 and the more independent the individual 

 mycelial hyphse are of one another, the more 

 thoroughly the plant is adapted to explore its 

 nutrient surroundings and to absorb its food. 

 As with the root-hairs of a root, increase of 

 surface is the keynote of the performance. 

 We find that all non-green plants tend towards 

 this adapted simplicity of organisation, though 

 the higher green plants have far to go before 

 they can shake off the shackles of complexity. 

 It is only from an anthropomorphic stand- 

 point, then, that we can regard these plants 

 as merely degraded or degenerate, for they 

 are just as accurately adapted to obtain 

 their more specialised form of food as is the 

 complex green plant in relation to its simpler 

 sources of nutrition. 



Furthermore, from this physiological point 

 of view, the fungi are even more complex 

 than their green ancestors, for they do not 

 merely absorb, but they also profoundly 

 influence the nature of the substratum in 

 which they live by means of the ferments 

 and other substances which they excrete. 

 Some of these non-green plants show an almost 

 diabolical ingenuity of physiological action, 

 as, for example, when some of the parasites, 

 by emitting an attractive excretion, cause 

 their victims to actually grow towards them, 



