PARASITIC FUNGI 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 this reason that some naturalists have 
regarded fungi as animals, and have classed them in 
the animal kingdom. We have seen that Heckel 
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 Orobranchee and 
some of the Orchidacee, 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 
