64 Mr. W. S. MacrEAY on certain general Laws regulating 
groups of equal degree. In Protophyta fructification is secon- 
dary, and the thallus essential ; whereas in Fungi it is quite the 
reverse. According to our author the first-born of Flora may all 
be accounted as essentially roots, and representing the mode of 
nutrition; while every fungus is as truly and representatively 
connected with fructification and reproduction. Throwing aside 
other considerations, we may perceive the analogous groups of 
the animal kingdom to be likewise constructed on a similar plan. 
Each of the Acrita, for example, imbibing nourishment at every 
pore of their surface, internal or external, is essentially a sto- 
mach, while the situation of the singular ovaries of the Radiata 
cannot fail to remind us of the importance and position of the 
sporidia in Fungi. The umbellate Medusa, the Echinus, the As- 
terias, and the Priapulus have all their representatives in myco- 
logy, of which the genera Lycoperdon and Phallus are noted 
instances; so that the analogy of the Radiated animals to Fungi 
is complete; and we thus have in organized matter the following 
two series of groups connected by affinity and analogous at their 
corresponding points. 
ANIMALIA. VEGETABILIA. 
Acta o s V. S5 Protephyta. 
Radiata . . . . . Hysterophyta. 
Annulosa . . . . . Monocotyledonea. 
Vertebrata. . . . . Dicotyledonea. 
Mollusca . . . . . Pseudo-cotyledonea? Agardh*. 
Con- 
* This last department of the vegetable kingdom, Pseudo-cotyledonea, has been de- 
fined by M. Agardh in the sixth part of his Aphorismi Botanici, which is dated De- 
cember 1821. According to him it embraces the Musci, Hepatice and Filices of Lin- 
neus; and in page 76 of the same work we find a comparison made between these 
plants and Amphibia, which is nevertheless much stronger when applied to them and 
the Mollusca. * Pseudo-cotyledoneæ Amphibiis non dissimiles, humum perreptant 
vel 
