CHAPTER III 



THE NATURE OF FTTNQTJS ATTACKS 



Plants find enemies ready to prey upon them both 

 in the vegetable and in the animal kingdom. Among 

 the former fmigi and bacteria are the most numerous 

 and important, although a few colourless flowering 

 plants such as dodder, broomrape, and toothwort 

 occasionally find their way into the garden, and prey 

 upon the garden plants. The enemies among the 

 latter are dealt with in later chapters. 



The principal characteristics of fungi are : (1) they 

 are not green, i.e. they contain none of the green 

 colouring matter possessed by ordinary plants ; 



(2) their bodies consist usually of slender branching 

 threads called a mycelium, but may be reduced to 

 much smaller proportions, indeed to a minute ceU 

 less than a thousandth of an inch in diameter ; 



(3) they are propagated by minute pieces, called 

 spores, pinched off the mycelium or formed inside 

 special cases. 



Bacteria are, broadly speaking, similar to the 

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