xiv INTRODUCTION. 



the furface be imooth and plain, or ragged with fcales, or other in- 

 equalities ; if rugged, lay, whether the matter is of the fame fubftance 

 with, and growing from the pileus, or is of a different fubftance, adhering 

 to the pileus by means of a glutin, or otherwife ; and note the colour *of 



thefe inequalities. If the furface is fmooth, note how it feels to the 



touch ; whether clammy or dry ; whether like cloth, {ilk, velvet, leather, 

 vellum, or what elfe; note, whether it confifts of much flefh or not, and 

 of what fubftance and colour within ; whether foft and fibrous, or hard 

 and brittle; whether diflblving or withering in decay; and note, what 

 mutations of colour take place on its furface, from the firft appearance 

 above ground to the utter decay of the plant. 



The plants which now compofe the Order Fungi, were formerly fuppofed 

 to be of equivocal generation, the fport of Nature, the effect of Putre- 

 faction, or the brood of Chance; but that they owe their original to the feeds 

 of a parent plant, is now well known, having been proved by Michelii, 

 in a work entitled IS! ova Plant arum Genera, published at Florence, in 1729, 

 in folio, with many excellent figures; by Dillenius, in his Catalogue 

 Plant arum circa Gijfenfis, publifhed at Frankfort, in 1719; byGLEDiTSCH, 

 in his Methodus Fungorum, publifhed at Berlin, in 1753; by Battara, 

 in his Fungorum agri ariminanfis Hijhria, printed in 4to, at Rimini, in. 

 1755; but above all by the ingenious Hedwig, who in a work entitled, 

 Jlijloria Generationes et FruBijicationes Plantarum Cryptogamicarum , printed 

 in 4to. at Petropoli, in 1784, has by means of the Microfcope proved 

 beyond difpute the exiftence of ftamin and ftile, or of male and female 

 organs in thefe; as perfect as regular, and effective in the production of 

 proper feeds, as in any other vegetable, where they are more obvious to 

 our fight ; his obfervations are illuftrated by figures, accurately engraved 

 and coloured, from his own drawings. See bis work, plate 34, 35, 36, 

 37, and from figure ' 195 to 214. 



Some obfervations may be made in regard to conftancy of place, in the 

 plants of this order. The' Agaricus integer, yillofus, purpureas, &C. theBoletus 

 luteus, and bovinus ; the Clathrus nudus, and denudatus, I have conftantly 



obferved 



