ON THE GENERAL FEATURES OF FUNGI. 6 



'Fungi come between Algae and Lichens. Between the central 

 forms or types of each class — between Sea-weed, Mushroom, and 

 Lichen — the difference is obvious enough. But there are forms, as 

 in the greater divisions of the Vegetable Kingdom, which come so 

 close to the border of their class that they may easily be taken as 

 belonging to another. There are Fungi closely approximating to 

 true Lichens, and others which seem almost Algte. 



Fungi, therefore, are flowerless and leafless plants. They never 

 possess the chlorophyll which produces the ordinary green tints of 

 other vegetables. They fructify by means of cells separated from 

 the tip of certain filaments, or produced within the cavity of the 

 pi-otoplasm. They derive nutriment from the substances on which 

 they grow. It is their natui^al office to promote chemical change 

 in organic structures, and to some extent in inorganic matter as 

 well. They are therefore found accelerating decomposition ; ac- 

 cording to ignorant belief, springing from it. They help to regu- 

 late the balance of atmospheric constituents. They are fertilizing 

 agents, providing nutriment proper for phoenogamous plants. 

 They serve as food for innumerable insects and larvte. They also 

 check exuberant growth, appearing in many forms as parasites on 

 living vegetable and animal structures. Some of them offer highly 

 nutritious food to men, and others contain essences having medi- 

 cinal and other properties. 



The forms in which Fungi appear are very numerous, enabling 

 botanists to classify them into a great many orders and genera. 

 These we shall study in their place. But there is an arbitrary and 

 unscientific method of subdividing the class, which it will be con- 

 venient to adopt, in so far as it serves the purposes of this book. 

 This is to consider all substantial, comparatively large, and fleshy 

 Fungi as being comprehended under the name of Mushrooms, and 

 to employ the title of Moulds to cover all minute forms. It is 

 with the first of these divisions that the present work is con- 

 cerned. 



Moulds comprehend the lai'ger number of species. Over two 

 thousand British species of them are known. For the most part 

 they can only be studied under the microscope. The mildew which 

 comes on articles of food, and is familiar to every one, is seen 

 under the microscope to be an aggregation of elegant and perfect 

 plants, infinitesimal in size, but subject to laws of growth as in 

 higher plants. These minute forms are of infinite variety, and ai-e 

 grouped into numerous orders and genera. Few among them have 



