Introduction to the study of fungi : their organography, classification and distribution, for the use of collectors / by M.C. Cooke.

Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introduction to the study of fungi : their organography, classification and distribution, for the use of collectors / by M.C. Cooke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    18/380 (page 2)
    are probably some lichens or some algae in which true chloro- phyll is not present ? But speaking of them as a whole, we are justified in saying of Fungi that they are cryptogams without chlorophyll, and in this we shall embody the most important characters of the group —a general definition which may be accepted without reservation. Except for one or two small families, we could add also without determinate sexuality. Previous to this, Berkeley had pointed out that the definition was imperfect which described Fungi as deriving nourishment by means of a mycelium from the matrix, and never producing from their component threads green bodies resembling chlorophyll, ^ for, he goes on to observe, it is true that a few Algae, such as Botrydium, do probably imbibe some- thing from the soil by means of their rootlets, which can scarcely be mere holdfasts ; and again, When we examine ^ Fungi more closely, we shall have reason to believe that there are exceptions here also as to their deriving nutriment from their matrix. I have, for instance, found a Cyphella on the hardest gravel stones, where the fine mycelioid threads, by which it was attached, could not possibly derive any nutriment except from matters conveyed to it by the air or falling moisture. To the latter portion of the paragraph, giving the negative character of the absence of chlorophyll, Berkeley, however, gives his adhesion. A logical definition, therefore, so commonly fails, that we shall excuse ourselves from attempting a new one, simply indicating a few points to be borne in mind whilst perusing the following pages, from whence alone a general idea can be obtained of such a polymorphous group. Lindley divided all the Cryptogamic plants into two sections, the Acrogens, growing at the summit, including the Ferns, Mosses, and their allies, and the Thallogens, which embraced Algae, Fungi, and Lichens. Hence we conclude that Fungi are not only Cryptogams, but of that section in which there is no true root or distinct stem with foliaceous appendages. Although the Rev. M. J. Berkeley was, in the main, responsible for Lindley's classification of the Cryptogams, it is out of date and inapplicable in the present 1 Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany, p. 235.