THE ALG^-FUNGI (PHYCOMYCETES) 225 



characteristic of the class. Thus phycomycetes hterally means 

 " seaweed fungi," and we call them algee-fungi ; ascomycetes 

 means "sac fungi," since some of the sjaores are formed in a 

 pecuhar sac ; and the basidiomycetes are the " stalk fungi," or 

 " club fungi," since some of the spores are borne upon a stalk 

 or club-like base. In each of these classes many kinds of fungi 

 are found, but only a few kinds in each class can be consid- 

 ered in an elementary treatment.^ The lichens are peculiar 

 plants, which are treated in this connection merely for lack of 

 better classification for them, as will appear later. 



218. Classification: 



Thallophytes 

 Algae 

 Fungi 



Class I. Phycomycetes. Leading genera used as illustrations, — 

 Hhizopus (bread mold), Saprolegnia (water mold), Plasmopara 

 (grape downy mildew), Phylophihora (potato blight), Cyntopus, 

 and others 

 Class II. Ascomycetes 

 Class III. Lichens 

 Class IV. Basidiomycetes 



1 The " slime molds," or myxomycetes, are usually classed with the fungi, 

 though some students regard them as animals. They often appear as ge- 

 latinous, sticky, yellow, brown, or brightly colored masses exuding from 

 crevices in old stumps, logs, old board walks, upon decaying leaves, and 

 sometimes upon very rich soil (Pig. 182). ^\t other times these masses pro- 

 duce stalks, globules, or one or a few rounded masses. These are the spore- 

 producing structures. So different are these two stages — one motile like 

 some of the lower animals, the other forming spores like some plants — that 

 students formerly thought the two stages were different organisms, of which 

 one was animal, the other plant. 



