2 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ferns and equisetse are readily mistaken for flowering plants, while, on the other 

 hand, some Belanophoria closely simulate some of the fungi. But even a limited 

 knowledge of botany will enable the student to avoid such mistakes. Crypto- 

 gams are arranged in a number of different groups, of only one of which — fungi 

 — we wish to take notice in this paper. This group. Cryptogams, are essentially 

 different from phanerogams, or flowering plants, not only in their diff"erent modes 

 of fructification, but also in the very principles of their organic life. Phanero- 

 gams grow by the building up of their organic structure directly from the inor- 

 ganic elements under the action of the life principle, which here operates as a 

 constructive force. But fungi grow by the appropriation and assimilation of mat- 

 ter that has previously been organized by some of the higher organic forms, 

 except, perhaps, in a few isolated cases of meteoric fungi, that derive all their 

 nutriment from the atmosphere. Common flowering plants absorb carbonic acid 

 from the air by their leaves and green twigs, and by some vegetable chemistry 

 the constituents of this gas are separated and the carbon is appropriated to build- 

 ing up the organic structure of the plant, while the oxygen is exhaled again to 

 the atmosphere. 



This process takes place only under the influence of sunlight, and by this 

 means chlorophyl — leaf green — which is the chief agent in building up vegetable 

 tissues, is organized. But in the growth of fungi the very reverse of this process 

 takes place. The growing fungus derives its nutriment from matter already or- 

 ganized, consequently it inhales oxygen and exhales carbonic acid, just as green 

 plants do in the dark; so no true chlorophyl is formed by this class of plants. To 

 all fungi belong both a vegetative and a reproductive system ; but there is a great 

 difference in the comparative development of these respective parts. In some, 

 the vegetative, and in others the reproductive organs predominate ; but in some 

 forms the reproductive system appears to be entirely wanting. In such cases it 

 is probable that the sporeless forms are but one stage in the development of some 

 fungus that in some other stage and under some different form will become 

 spore-bearing. 



It is a fact that is now fully established and generally known that many 

 fungi assume such different forms and exhibit such different phenomena at differ- 

 ent periods in their history as to be recognized as different plants, and in many 

 cases to receive different names and be classed in different genera, orders and 

 even families. There are anomalous cases of fructification in which there is a 

 succession of spores produced one from another, each generation growing smaller 

 in size, sometimes to the fourth or fifth generation, the last one entering into the 

 proper nidus and reproducing the original form. This continued reduction in 

 size seems to be for the purpose of reducing the spores to such dimensions as will 

 enable them to enter the stomata of leaves, or other suitable nidus, where condi- 

 tions are suitable for germination and growth. An illustrative example of this 

 mode of fructification is found in the entophytes of the order Caeomacei, which 

 produce spores either single or in chains at the end of fertile threads, which 



