$00 CRYPTOGAM IA. 



sect, and destined to produce a brood of 

 maggots, to feed on the decaying fungus* 

 as on a dead carcase. Ellis's beautiful 

 discoveries, relative to corals and their in- 

 habiting polypes, led to the strange ana- 

 logical hypothesis that these insects formed 

 the fungus, which Munchausen and others 

 have asserted. Some have thought fungi 

 were composed of the sap of corrupted 

 wood, transmuted into a new sort of being, 

 an idea as tinphilosophical as the former, 

 and unsupported by any semblance of 

 truth. 



Dryander, Schaeffer and Hedwig have, 

 on much better grounds, asserted their 

 vegetable nature, detected their seeds, and 

 in many cases explained their parts of 

 fructification. In fact, they propagate 

 their species as regularly as any other or- 

 ganized beings, though, like others, sub- 

 ject to varieties. Their sequestered and 

 obscure habitations, their short duration, 

 their mutability of form and substance, 

 render them indeed more difficult of in- 

 vestigation than common plants, but there 

 is no reason to suppose them less perfect. 



