FUNGI

(Lat.), n. m. pi. Fun(fu4n)'ji(ge). Fr., funf/acees, champignons. Ger., Pilze, Schwamme. lt.,funghi. Sp., hongos, set as. Syn.: Hyxterophyta, Fungales. A section of cryptogams closely related to the Alyoe. from wpich they are chiefly distinguished tty the absence of chlorophyll, which renders them dependent upon organic matter for their nutrition. They are accordingly saprophytes, living upon dead or decaying animal or vegetable matter,:>r parasites, subsisting on other living organisms, ectoparasites when growing on the surface, endoparasites when penetrating the interior. In the F. there is no distinction into axis, root, or appendages, the whole being merged into one ma , called a thallus, w-nich is divided into two portions the vegetative and the reproductive. The first, known as the mycelium, consists of slender, segmented or unsegmented, colorle filaments, called hyphae, which in some F. po e lateral branches (haustoria), which serve to fix the plant as well as to extract nourishment. The only members which do not produce hyphse are some of the lowest, and certain degenerative higher forms (e. g., the yeast plant, in which the whole vegetative part consists of cells or chains of cells). The reproductive portion either is the terminal joint of a filament, when it is called a spore, or is lodged in a sac (o-scus), when it is called a sporidium. In a large number of F. sexual reproduction is unknown. In some species (e. g., Mucor) sexual reproduction takes place by conjugation, and in others by the production of oospores, the last being regarded by some authors as degenerate, parasitic, or saprophytic forms of Algae. The F. produce asexually by means of conidia or gonidia. In some species, chiefly aquatic, these are motile spores provided with cilia, but in most they are non-motile, thick-walled cells, which eventually become separated from the parent hyphse. The F. of Ju ieu, 1728, included the F. and Lichenes of authors. The F. of Linnaeus and others were an order previous including Agaric us, Boletus, Peziza, and other genera of the higher forms; of Link, an order of the Anandrce, including Agarints, Ru ula, Coprinus, etc. The F. of Brongniart comprised the Tremellinece, F. (Helvellacece, Clavariece, and Agaricecp), and the Clathracece. In modern systems of cla ification they comprise the Phycomycetes (suborders, Saprolegniece, Peronosporece, Mucor in i), Hypoderm ice (suborders, Uredinece, Ustilaginece), Basidiomycetes (suborders, Tremellini, Hymenomycetes, Gasteromycetes), Ascomycetes (suborders, Discomycetes, Erysiphece, Tuberacece, Pyre no mycetes, and Lichenes), Myxomycetes, and Schizomycetes (see these words). Eichler divides the F. into the Schizomycetes. Blastomycetes (Saccharomycetes), Myxomycetes, Phycomycetes, and Mycomycetes. The F. of Schroter (1885) include the Myxomycetes, Schizomycetes, and Eumycetes, the latter including the Chytridiei, Zygomycetes, Oomycetes, Ascomycetes, Uredine i, Auriculariei, and Basidiomycetes, the last being subdivided into the Tremellinei, Discyomycetes, and Eubasidiomycetes (which last include the Hynnnomycetes, Phalloidei, and Gastromycetes). In De Bary's cla ification the Lichenes, regarded by many as a distinct cla , are placed as a suborder, and the Schizomycetes as an order of plants. The latter are considered by some as belonging to the animal kingdom, and by others as a suborder of the Schizophyta (g. v.). The F. have but little economic importance; a few are edible, most are poisonous, and few have a medicinal value. The lower forms have of late a scientific value as aetiological factors of disease. [B, 19, 77, 104, 121, 180, 185, 291 (a, 24).] See also under FUNGUS. [s. 120]