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A work of this kind could not be considered complete without some account of the systematic arrangement or classification which these plants receive at the hands of botanists. It would hardly avail to enter too minutely into details, yet sufficient should be attempted to enable the reader to comprehend the value and relations of the different groups into which fungi are divided. The arrangement generally adopted is based upon the "Systema Mycologicum" of Fries, as modified to meet the requirements of more recent microscopical researches by Berkeley in his "Introduction,"[A] and adopted in Lindley's "Vegetable Kingdom." Another arrangement was proposed by Professor de Bary,[B] but it has never met with general acceptance.
In the arrangement to which we have alluded, all fungi are divided into two primary sections, having reference to the mode in which the fructification is produced. In one section, the spores (which occupy nearly the same position, and perform similar functions, to the seeds of higher plants) are naked; that is, they are produced on spicules, and are not enclosed in cysts or capsules. This section is called SPORIFERA, or spore-bearing, because, by general consent, the term _spore_ is limited in fungi to such germ-cells as are not produced in cysts. The second section is termed SPORIDIIFERA, or sporidia-bearing, because in like manner the term _sporidia_ is limited to such germ-cells as are produced in cells or cysts. These cysts are respectively known as _sporangia_, and _asci_ or _thecæ_. The true meaning and value of these divisions will be better comprehended when we have detailed the characters of the families composing these two divisions.