ae 
394 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
bacteria. The supposed loss of sexual characters among the fungi 
has been attributed to their change from water forms to air forms, 
but bacteria are not air forms. The theory of the degeneration of 
the bacteria from the algae was a very peculiar one, imposed by 
ignorance of certain primitive bacteria. It is now known that 
bacteria exist which are autotrophic and can secure growth energy 
from inorganic carbon, so that their lack of chlorophyll is no longer 
a reason for considering them degenerated from the chlorophyll- 
containing forms. The existence of autotrophic fungi, to my 
knowledge, has never been demonstrated. 
There is a simple group, therefore, the members of which are 
autotrophic; and two diverse complex groups, one of which (the 
fungi) is not autotrophic and may not be homogeneous. Both o 
these complex groups show marked resemblances to the simple one. 
JENSEN’s scheme, which derives both of them from the simple one, 
is not to be lightly thrown aside. It coincides too well with the 
general scheme of evolution. We may, if we wish, consider the 
question entirely open, but nomenclature and classification should 
be so formulated that they do not deliberately mislead the amateur 
on the subject of these relationships. Formerly the tendency in 
botanical classification was to make a treelike structure, throwing 
groups together that had but superficial resemblances, but classifiers 
today are more prone to refuse to indicate relationships where 
descent is not fairly certain, and to group the plants in phyla like 
the zoological phyla, whose connections may or may not be under- 
stood. 
The bacteria, fungi, and blue-green algae, therefore, may be all 
in one phylum, or may be placed in three separate phyla, but to 
place the bacteria with either fungi or Cyanophyceae is incon- 
sistent, because it leaves out of consideration the third group which 
may be equally related to the bacteria. Probably the trend of 
classification would favor the separation of these groups into three 
separate phyla, for to place the fungi and Cyanophyceae together 
is rather stretching the limits of the botanist’s conception of a 
phylum. Moreover, in view of the existing divergent opinions, a 
classification that does not commit one on the subject of these 
relationships is preferable. A name for the phylum that is to 
