BOTANY: 83 
that Monera in past time divided into animal and vegetal 
Monera, and endeavored to show how the animal kingdom 
may have descended from animal Monera. Although 
the precise time and exact manner in which the vegetal 
kingdom appeared may never, perhaps, from the nature 
of the case, be demonstrated, still, Prof. Haeckel's view of 
vegetal Monera having been the remote ancestors of the 
vegetal kingdom has so much in its favor that it may be 
accepted as a near approximation to the truth. Following 
5 
then, Prof. Haeckel, the vegetal Monera must be regarded 
as the ancestors of the Protophyta, or primitive plants, 
those most simple, unicellular Algae, like the Chlorococcus, 
etc., while the Green, Brown, and Red Alga represent the 
three diverging branches of a stem whose roots originate in 
the, Protophyta. 
FUNGI, 
Mushrooms, puff-balls, smuts, mildews, truffles, moulds, 
although offering in minor points variety of structure, still 
agree in so many important respects, and differ so essen- 
tially from all other plants, that they are always associatec 
by naturalists, and are regarded as forming the very natural 
group of Fungi. One of the most general laws of Biology 
is that while animals derive their nutriment solely from the 
organic world, plants, on the contrary, are nourished by 
inorganic matter; in other words, while plants by their 
life-processes change inorganic into organic matter, animals 
by their life-processes reconvert organic into inorganic 
matter. Fungi, in feeding solely on organic matter, 
agree with animals, and differ from all other plants. Amy- 
lum, or starch-flour. is one of the most constant products 
of the vegetal kingdom, yet no trace of this important 
principle is found among the Fungi. The green color 
so characteristic of plants, due to the presence of 
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