506 WILD FLOWERS OF 



Various arrangements of the fungoid tribes have 

 been propounded by botanists, of which the most cele- 

 brated in modern times is that proposed by FRIES, 

 who divides the whole order into four cohorts ; * but, 

 unfortunately, the names he employs are as indigesti- 

 ble as the substances treated of, and would probably 

 only annoy the observer who had not a life to devote 

 to the subject, or ample time for minute attention to 

 microscopical examination. As they meet the eye of 

 a " looker-out," we may consider them as casual or 

 uncertain, and fixed or constant. The latter are so 

 identified with the living or dead organic substance 

 on which they are founded, that like the vulture on 

 Prometheus they ever remain to feast upon their 

 prey, while its juices supply them with sustenance. 

 They may be considered as annual or perennial, 

 according as they develop themselves upon the foliage 

 of plants under the names of mould, blight, mildew, 

 &c., or as dry-rot expand in leathery masses among 

 the fibres of decaying timber, or appear upon hollow 

 or diseased trees in the shape of Boleti, Poli/pori, or 

 Dcedaleee, as large nabelliforin tiled masses, increasing 

 in bulk year after year.f 



The smaller annual fungi, especially the JEcidii, 



* Professor BURNETT observes, that though " Mycologists greatly differ 

 in their arrangements, they all, more or less agree with the popular dis- 

 tribution into Blights, Puff-Bails, and Mushrooms." BurnetCs Botany, 

 p. 177. 



t Some of the species of Polyporus grow very large in neglected spots, 

 becoming hard enough to sit or stand upon, the Willow Polyporus ( P. 

 igniarius) being often as large as a man's head. P.fraxineus forms very 

 hard brown jutting masses on ash trees, slowly increasing and long en- 

 during ; one is mentioned by Mr. M. J. BERKELEY that was nearly 42 

 inches across. Similar fungi attain a great magnitude in the southern 

 hemisphere, as Mr. ANGUS in his Savage Life and Scenes in Australia, 

 states that " the large shelving Fungi growing from the trunks of the 

 trees, near the roots, are so broad and strong as to form capital seats." 



