FUNxVRIOIDE^ 



[ 280 ] 



FUNGI. 



internal : teeth equal in number, lanceolate, 

 subulate, fissile longitudinally in the middle, 

 smooth, much exceeding the external in 

 length, yellowish, placed on a shortly-grooved 

 membrane. Operculum regularly areolate. 

 FUNARIOIDEJE.— A suborder of opercu- 

 lated Acrocarpous (terminal-fruited) Mosses, 

 with broadly-oval, spathulate leaves, fur- 

 nished with a lax cylindrical nerve, composed 

 entirely of large parenchymatous cells, lax 

 and parallelogrammic at the base, lax, hexa- 

 gonal, or. polygonal towards the apex, often 

 very densely filled with chlorophyll-granules, 

 more or less pellucid. Capsule pyriform, 

 apophysate, the neck {collum) mostly bearing 

 stomates on its epidermis (fig. 266). 



Fig. 265. 



Fig, 266. 



F. hygrometrica. 



Fig. 265. Portion of the annulus. Magn. 150 diams. 



Fig. 266. Epidermis of the collum, with stomates. 

 Magn. 150 diams. 



This suborder is divided into two families : 



1. Funariacece. Stem very simple, ter- 

 restrial. 



2. Splachnacece. Stem very much branched, 

 mostly occurring upon dung of animals. 



FUNGI.— A class of Cellular, Flowerless 

 Plants, growing in or upon damp (vegetable) 

 mould, in or upon the wood and the herba- 

 ceous parts of living or dead plants, upon 

 living or decaying animal substances, in so- 

 lutions of organic mixtures, &c. A very 

 large portion of the plants belonging to this 

 strange class are microscopic bodies, only to 

 be made out clearly by means of a very high 

 magnifying power; as in the rest of the 

 Thallophytes, moreover, the reproductive 

 bodies are simple and exceedingly minute in 

 the most complex forms of Fungi ; and con- 

 sequently dissection under the microscope is 

 requisite when it is desired to obtain a satis- 

 factory insight into their natural history. 



The Fungi do not ap])ear to be capable of 

 assimilating inorganic food, and are distin- 

 guished from healthy specimens of almost 

 all other plants by the total absence of the 

 colour depending on the presence of chloro- 

 phyll or its red modifications; for it is scarcely 

 to be doubted that the various colourless 

 filamentous structures (Leptomitea?, &c.), 

 occurring in infusions, chemical solutions 

 and the like, are Fungi, and not Alga?, as 



some have supposed. They are allied by 

 certain forms with the Algae and with the 

 Lichens, but they are distinguished from all 

 outwardly similar forms of the first by the 

 spore- bearing fruits always being elevated 

 into the air, when mature, although the 

 thallus or mycehum may be aquatic. The 

 higher forms of Fungi can scarcely be con- 

 founded with the higher Algae. The separa- 

 tion from the Lichens is more difficult, and 

 l)romises to be still less practicable the more 

 we know of the plants ; indeed, some authors 

 have already come to the conclusion that the 

 Lichens must be reduced to forms of Fungi. 

 Yet the presence of green gonidial cells in 

 the thallus will generally sufficiently distin- 

 guish the Lichens. We shall here follow 

 the old plan; and the distinction ordinarily 

 laid down is, that the Lichens are entirely 

 aerial encrusting plants, while the Fungi 

 have their vegetative structure immersed in 

 the medium in which they grow. 



The structures of all Fungi exhibit a well- 

 defined separation into two parts, namely, 

 1, a mycelium (thallus), or vegetative struc- 

 ture, consisting of a mass of exceedingly 

 delicate, jointed and branched, colourless, 

 interlacing filaments, forming a kind of cot- 

 tony or felty mass when growing in the earth, 

 in vegetable structures, &c., or cloudy flocks 

 when growing in decomposing liquids ; 2, of 

 the reproductive structure or fruit, which, 

 unlike the mycelium, differs extremely in 

 appearance in the various tribes. 



The mycelium may be well examined in 

 the "spawn" used for planting mushroom- 

 beds, since this cottony substance consists 

 of the mycelium of that plant ; the forma- 

 tion and growth of the mycelium of the mi- 

 croscopic species, such as moulds, mildews, 

 &c., may be traced under the microscope by 

 scattering some of the dust-like fructifica- 

 tions (as the blue powder of common paste- 

 mould) upon slips of glass, and keeping them 

 in a warmish place under a bell-glass over 

 water, for several days. The filaments will 

 be seen spreading from the spores in all di- 

 rections, and often the formation of the fruc- 

 tification is exhibited. 



The/rMC^i^ca^ioMof the simplest Fungi is 

 nothing more than a modification of one or 

 more cells at the ends of a filament which 

 rises up from the general body of the m3'ce- 

 lium. In Tor u LA, one or more globular 

 cells are produced at the ends of filaments 

 composed of elongated, more or less cylin- 

 drical cells (PI. 20. fig. 7) ; these globules 

 drop off", and dovelope into new mycelia. In 



