PARASITIC FUKGI AND MOULDS. 11 



other plants, or from animals and from the organic 

 substances which are decomposing in the soil, such 

 as dung and dead bodies. So that it may be said 

 of fungi, that they subsist like animals by devouring 

 plants or other animals ; not like higher plants, which 

 derive their nutriment from the soil or the air, and 

 owe nothing to other living beings. 



It is for uiis reason that some naturalists have 

 regarded fungi as animals, and have classed them in 

 the animal kingdom. We have seen that Hseckel 

 and the naturalists of his school have assigned them 

 to the kingdom of Protista. But setting aside their 

 mode of nutrition, which is likewise found in plants of 

 a higher, organization, such as the Orobranchece and 

 some of the Orchidacece, fungi really exhibit all the 

 characters of plants, and as such we shall here con- 

 sider them, although they are plants of a peculiar 

 and very low type. 



The class of fungi may be defined by saying that 

 they are plants devoid of stems, leaves, and roots ; that 

 they consist only of cells in juxtaposition, devoid of 

 chlorophyl. They never bear a true flower, and are 

 simply reproduced by means of very minute bodies, 

 generally formed of a single cell, which is called a 

 spore, and which represents the seed. 



In fungi of the highest type, such as that commonly 

 known as the edible mushroom, the part which we 

 eat and call the umbrella represents the flower or 

 floral peduncle of other plants, and is in reality only 



