44 



CRYPTOGAMIA. 



thin wide extended film on the surface, which is one 

 species, and called green-paper Byssus. 



The various size and grandeur of vegetable produc- 

 tions is not less remarkable than the different qua- 

 lities of their fruits, or the endless variety and beauty 

 of their flowers : while on the one hand we have the 

 Byssus so minute as to require the investigation of the 

 microscope, we have in the same vegetable kingdom 

 a Pine-tree rising with a perpendicular stem to the 

 height of more than two hundred feet, governed by the 

 same laws and subject to the same principles of life. 



ORDER 4. 



&c. 



fungi. MOREL. This fungus is much esteemed as an 



Mushrooms, ingredient in sauces and soups, for which purpose it 

 may be preserved dry lor many months, or even years. 

 Those who employed themselves in gathering morels 

 in Germany, observed that they grew most plentifully 

 where wood had been burned} and to promote their 

 propagation they were accustomed to set tire to the 

 woods till that practice was prohibited by law. 



The ancient Hindus held the fungus in such detes 

 tation, that Yam a, a legislator, supposed now to be 

 the judge of departed spirits, declares, " Those who 

 eat mushrooms, whether springing from the ground 



