CRYPTOGAMIA. 381 



•species as regularly as any other organized beings, 

 thougii, like others, subject to varieties. Their se- 

 questered and obscure habitations, their short dura- 

 tion, their mutability of form and substance, render 

 tliem indeed more difficult of investigation than com- 

 mon plants, but there is no reason to suppose them 

 les^ perfect, or less accurately defined. Splendid and 

 accurate works, illustrative of this Order, have been 

 given to the world by Schasifer, Bui Hard and Sovver- 

 by, which are the more uselul as the generality of 

 fungi cannot well be preserved. The most distin- 

 guished writer upon them, indeed the only good sys- 

 tematic one, is Persoon, who has moreover supplied 

 us with some excjuiaile figures. His Synopsis Me- 

 thodica Fungorum helps us to the following arrange- 

 ment. 



1. Angiucarpi, such as bear seeds internally. These 

 are either haid, like Sptiaria, Soiverb. Fung. t. 159, 

 160 ; or membranous, tough and leathery, like Ly- 

 coperdon, t. 331, 332 ; Cyathus (Nidularia) t. 28, 

 29 ; oi Batarrea ( LycoperdonJ t. 390. 



2. Gynmocarpi, such as bear seeds imbedded in an 

 appropriate, dilated, exposed membrane, denomina- 

 ted hymemum, like Hdvella, t. 39, in which that part 

 is smooth and even ; Boletus, t. 34, 87, 13!, in which 

 it is porous ; and the vast genus Agaricus^ t. 1, 2, 

 &c., in which it consists of parallel plates called la- 

 mellce, or gills. 



Perboon has been commendably sparing of new 

 terms. Besides Hymenium above explained, he has 

 scarcely introduced any other than peridium^ for the 



