FUNGI. 149 



broom-rape (Orobanche), tooth-wort (Lathrma squamarid), 

 and bird's-nest orchis (Neottia nidus-avis), are British 

 examples of such. In the above and numerous other 

 examples of degenerate species the general structure is 

 retained, consequently there is no difficulty in referring such 

 to their proper orders. This, however, is not always the 

 case. The species belonging to the orders Rafflesiacea. and 

 Balanophorem have become so far modified that the vegeta- 

 tive system is reduced to very small proportions and com- 

 pletely buried in the host, where it performs the mechanical 

 function of absorbing assimilated food, the flower or repro- 

 ductive portion alone appearing above the surface, thus 

 approaching in this respect the habit of true fungi ; and 

 in the last-named order there is the further coincidence — 

 if nothing more — that the inflorescence of minute flowers 

 in many instances mimics in form and colour well-known 

 fungi. The characteristic odours of the Phalloidei are exhaled 

 by many species, some of which spring up with marvellous 

 rapidity after rain, and from the general resemblance are 

 popularly mistaken for fungi ; for example, Cynomorium 

 coccineum, a species belonging to the Balanophorece, is the 

 Fungus melitensis of the Crusaders. Finally the embryo 

 produced in the seed of the above species remains undivided 

 — that is, not formed by cell-division into a plantlet — during 

 the resting-stage, agreeing in this respect with the sexually 

 produced resting-spore in Cryptogams. This last peculiarity 

 again appears to be the result of retrogression, since the 

 orders most closely allied to the degenerate ones have the 

 typical phanerogamic embryo. If this degeneration of 

 Phanerogams continues it may probably result, as I have 

 stated elsewhere, in a group of phanerogamic fungi possessing 

 morphological and physiological characteristics of its own, 



