230 IMPERFECT PLANTS. 



and flowers, they appear to want every property 

 which would entitle them to rank with other vegetables. 

 In taste, they approach near to the lower tribe of ani- 

 mals, and by many writers they have been arranged 

 with zoophites, and regarded as animated beings. But 

 more enlightened observation and more accurate re- 

 search, have pointed out their analogy to some of the 

 preceding orders. The names of Micheli, Hedwig 

 and Persoon, rank high among the botanists who have 

 devoted their time to the investigation of this depart- 

 ment of botany. They have in the language of a late 

 writer, demonstrated that Mushrooms are organized 

 vegetables which consist of fibres, vessels and roots, 

 hat they have organs appropriated to the formation of 

 seeds (or gems) and that without these no reproduc- 

 tion can take place. In short, they spring up, flourish, 

 and decay, like other organized beings, after having 

 transmitted the principles of that vitality which they 

 possess, to a new race exactly similar to themselves. 



The examination of Fungi presents to our view the 

 wrapper Fig. 127, which envelopes the fungus when 

 young and in its mature state remains close to the 

 ground ; the cap or summit, Fig. 125 which is usually 

 oval, and supported on the peculiar stem of the Fungus, 

 which stem is denominated the Stipe. The inferior sur 

 face cf the cap is beset with gills as in AgaricusFig. 125 ; 

 with pores as in Boletus 123 ; and with prickles as, in 

 Hydnum, Fig. 128 ; and these gills, prickles and pores, 

 are the seat of the reproductive organs. The stipe is 

 either central or lateral, solid or hollow, sometimes 

 connected with the gills and sometimes separate, and 

 these are characters to which it is often necessary to 

 resort. 



Persoon has arranged them according to the situa 



