MUSHROOMS. 



ANTIQUITY OF FUNGI. 



Fungi have existed from early geological 

 ages. They flourished in the Carboniferous 

 period, when the enormous beds of coal were 

 formed, a space of time that occupied many 

 millions of years. Bessey says that the oldest 

 known member of the order of membrane fungi, 

 Hymenomycetes, was called by the name of 

 "Polyporites Bowmanii." During the Ter- 

 tiary period members of the genera now known 

 under the names of Lenzites, Poly poms, and 

 Hydnum were all in existence. It is interest- 

 ing to know that even before the Tertiary period 

 the undergrowth consisted of ferns and fleshy 

 fungi. What a time of delight for the botan- 

 ist ! But there were no human beings in those 

 days to roam amongst that luxuriant under- 

 growth, and only the fossil remains in the de- 

 posits of coal and peat are left to tell of their 

 former existence. 



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