FCNARIOIDE^. 



[ 343 ] 



FUNGI. 



smooth, mucli exceeding the exterual in 

 leugth, yellowish, placed on a shortl}^- 

 grooved "membrane. Operculum regularly 

 areolate. 



FUNARIOIDE^E. — A suborder of 

 operculated Acrocarpous (terminal-fruited) 

 Mosses, with broadly-oval spathulate leaves, 

 furnished with a lax cyhndrical nerve, com- 

 posed entirely of large parenchymatous 

 cells, lax and parallelogrammic at the base, 

 lax, hexagonal, or polygonal towards the 

 apex, often very densely filled with chloro- 

 phyll-granuleSj'more or less pellucid. Cap- 

 sule pyriform,apophysate, the neck {coUtim) 

 mostly bearing stomata on its epidermis 

 (fig. 262). 



Fig. 261. 



Fig. 262. 



r. hvgrometrica. 



Fig. 261. Portion of the annulus. Magn. 100 diams. 

 Fig. 262. Epidermis of the coUum, witti stomata. 

 Magn. 100 diams. 



This suborder is divided into two fa- 

 milies : 



FuN.\EiACE^. Stem very simple ; ter- 

 restrial. 



Splachnace.^. Stem very much 

 branched ; mostly occurring upon the dung 

 of animals. 



FUXGI. — A class of Cellular Flowerless 

 Plants, growing in or upon damp (vege- 

 table) mould, in or upon the wood and the 

 herbaceous parts of li-ving or dead plants, 

 upon living or decaying animal substances, 

 in solutions of organic matters, &c. A few 

 occui' on bare stones or other inorganic sub- 

 stances, as a species of Cyphella and some 

 Myxomycetes; but this is quite exceptional. 

 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 re- 

 productive bodies are simple and exceed- 

 ingly minute in the larger forms of Fungi ; 

 consequently dissection under the micro- 

 scope is requisite when it is desired to ob- 

 tain a satisfactory insight into their natui'al 

 history. 



The Fungi do not appear 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 chlo- 

 rophyll or its red modifications, and of 

 starch ; for it is scarcely to be doubted that 

 the various colourless filamentous structures 

 (Leptomitese, &c.) occurring in infusions, 

 chemical solutions and the like, are Fungi, 

 and not Algse as some have supposed. They 

 are allied by certain forms with the Algae 

 and with the Lichens ; but they are distin- 

 guished 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 mycelium may be 

 aquatic. The higher forms of Fungi can 

 scarcely be confounded with the higher 

 Algaj. ' The separation from the Lichens is 

 more difficult ; indeed some authors have 

 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 sufliciently distinguish 

 the Lichens. We shall here follow the old 

 plan ; and the distinction ordinarily laid 

 down is, that the Lichens are enth'ely aerial 

 mcrMSiim^ plants, while the Fungi have their 

 vegetative structure immersed in the me- 

 dium in which they grow. Some of the 

 epiphyllous lichens, however, originate be- 

 neath the cuticle. 



The structm-es of all Fungi exhibit a weU- 

 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 

 cottony or felty mass when growdng in the 

 earth, in vegetable structm-es, &c., or cloudy 

 flockswhen growing in decomposing liqmds. 

 In some cases, as in certain Sphcerice, the 

 threads are woven into a close mass, or, as 

 in Phallus, into filiform cords ; while in the 

 Myxomycetes the threads become obsolete 

 or are replaced by a jelly-like substance re- 

 sembling sarcode. 2, of the reproductive 

 structure or fruit, which, unlike the myce- 

 lium, ditiers extremely in appearance in the 

 various tribes. 



The mycelium may be well examined in 

 the "spawn" used for planting mushroom- 

 beds ; this cottony substance consists of the 

 mycelium of that plant. The formation and 

 growth of the mycelium of the microscopic 

 species, such as moulds, mildews, &c., may 

 be traced under the microscope by scattering 

 some of the dust-hke fructifications (as the 

 blue powder of common paste-mould) upon 



