35 



passing along from the fungi to the lichens and from these to the He- 

 patica and the mosses and ferns, where every one will allow that the 

 green parts are the nutritive tissue of the plant and the analogues of 

 the leaves. There is one curious point with regard to the morpholo- 

 gical structure of the fungi which I would here point out. It is, that 

 the whole body of the fungus is the analogue of the flower in the 

 higher plants, the thallus of all the Cryptogamia being in this family 

 at its minimum of development ; the only analogue of the thallus 

 being the mycelium, which is seen in the early part of the development 

 of all fungi, and disappears when the hymenium is developed. I may 

 perhaps here be allowed to mention how beautifully this fact con- 

 firms the relation of polarity which Professor E. Forbes has pointed 

 out, as existing in every part of the animal and vegetable kingdom. 

 The Fungi and the Alga must be regarded as parallel groups, and in 

 fact, up to the present moment, there is no definition that will distin- 

 guish between many of their groups, so that a whole tribe, Byssoidea, 

 are referred sometimes to one, sometimes to the other, and sometimes 

 distributed variously through each. The characteristics of the con- 

 centrate sphere are a tendency to concentration in the organs of re- 

 production, to the formation of an internal skeleton in the organs of 

 support, and to a unity in the combination of its parts. Of these 

 three characters the fungi are a remarkable exhibition, as seen in the 

 Agarics, and generally in the higher forms of Hymenomycetes. On the 

 other hand, the characters of the articulate sphere are a tendency to 

 elongation, the formation of an external skeleton, and articulation, all 

 of which characters are conspicuous in the Conferva, the Laminaria, 

 and other forms of the family Alga. The whole fungus may then be 

 said to be the analogue of the flower, and just in the same way as the 

 calyx and corolla stand in the relation of nutritive organs to the more 

 especially reproductive stamens and pistil, so do the pileus and stipes 

 stand in the relation of nutritive organs to the hymenium. 



If such, then, be the real nature of the fungi, we should expect 

 to find that this abnormal form would be permanently normal in 

 some members of the family. I think such forms are indicated in the 

 clavate forms of fungi, and in the Pezizas and other exosporous 

 fungi generally. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley also informs me that he 

 has received from Swan River, a new species of Secotium, (S. mela- 

 nosporum) in which there are two isolated patches of hymenium on 

 the stem, and in some species of this genus the hymenium sometimes 

 extends entirely over the top of the stem. 



With regard to the small fungi developed on the pileus drawn by 



D 2 



