CHAPTER XIII 

 PHYLUM VII. CARPOMYCETEAE 



THE HIGHER FUNGI 



328. The plants here brought together are all hystero- 

 phytes, being destitute of chlorophyll or any other simi- 

 lar coloring matter with physiological significance. In 

 accordance with the theory underlying the treatment of 

 all plant phyla in this book these hysterophytes must 

 have been derived from some of the preceding holophytes, 

 and it seems most probable that they came from the plants 

 in the phylum immediately preceding this one. In other 

 words, it is here assumed that the Higher Fungi are allied 

 in structure to the Red Algae, and that the striking differ- 

 ences between them are correlated principally with the 

 change from the holophytic to the hysterophytic habit, 

 but it must be remembered also that the Red Algae are 

 aquatic plants, while nearly all the Higher Fimgi have 

 adapted themselves to terrestrial or aerial (non-aquatic) 

 conditions. 



329. The Higher Fungi may be characterized as fol- 

 lows: They are filamentous plants, whose cells are always 

 without chlorophyll. Visible protoplasmic connections 

 between cell and cell are common. The filaments are 

 mostly isolated, but sometimes they are compacted into 

 parenchymatous masses, yet in few cases is there a con- 

 spicuous plant body comparable to the body of the re- 

 lated chlorophyll-bearing plants. This obsolescence of 

 the plant body results from the abandonment of the holo- 

 phytic habit, which has rendered chlorophyll-bearing 



211 



