MORPHOLOGY 



plant body nutritive or vegetative, and the other 

 members reproductive. 



Our general idea of a plant body, as described 

 above, refers mainly to what are known as the higher 

 classes of plants, with which we are more familiar. 

 There are other plants, however, which belong to 



what are known as lower 

 classes, with which we are 

 less familiar. In these 

 lower classes the plant 

 body is not differentiated 

 into members, such as 

 roots, stems, leaves, &c., 

 but consists of a uni- 

 form structure. Such a 

 uniform undifferentiated 

 plant body is known as a 

 THALLUS, and all plants 

 in which the body is a 

 thallus are known as 

 Thallophyta or thallus- 

 plants. For instance, 

 the green shaola (Spiro- 

 gyra) that floats freely in 

 patches on the surface of 

 many tanks, or the shaola 

 {Conferva) (fig. i) that is seen attached to the sub- 

 merged masonry steps of bathing-ghats, consists of 

 a mass of fine green branched or unbranched threads 

 or filaments, each of which is a plant the body of 

 which is not differentiated into root, stem, and leaf. 

 Shaola, therefore, is a Thallophyte. Wet shoes, 

 stale bread, stale curds, dung-cakes, &c., in the wet 

 season are often found covered with a white or grey 

 incrustation which consists of a network of fine 



Fig. I. — Shaola i,C<m/erva) 



