CHAPTEE I 



INTKODUCTION 



The student will expect to find in an Introduction to the study 

 of any subject some definition and delimitation of that subject 

 — a task difficult in all cases to accomplish with brevity, and 

 within the compass of a technical description, but one of in- 

 creased difficulty when the subject is so extensive and com- 

 plicated as Fungi. In past times definitions have been hazarded 

 which appeared at the time to be incontestable and complete, 

 but within a short period they became insufficient. That they 

 are plants of a low organisation must be conceded, and also that 

 they belong to the lowest section, or the Cryptogamia, in which 

 the reproductive organs are more or less concealed ; but the old 

 characteristics of Algae as cellular plants subsisting in water ; 

 of Lichens as subsisting in air, and not upon the matrix on 

 which they flourish ; and, finally, of Fungi, which derived their 

 sustenance from the matrix, have had to be discarded as in- 

 sufficient. It is now known that aquatic Fungi are not an 

 impossibility, that Algae may grow in a damp atmosphere, and 

 that some portion of the substance of Lichens may be derived 

 from their matrix. Seeing the difficulty of obtaining positive 

 characters, negative ones have been tried ; but these again have 

 failed to give satisfaction. In one of the most recent works 

 which has attempted to deal with this difficulty we meet with 

 the following as one of the " leading characters." It is to the 

 effect that " Chlorophyll, the green colouring matter so general 

 in the vegetable kingdom, is entirely absent from fungi." 1 

 Admitting this to be true, may it not be maintained that there 



1 Massee, British Fungi (1891), p. 1. 

 1 



