6* FUNGI. 



Mucli has been written about the mode in which Fungi 

 originate and are propagated, and some writers, of considerable 

 weight, have considered them as the offspring of equivocal 

 generation, under a certain concurrence of circumstances and 

 special condition of the elements, from previously existing 

 organized matter. It is to be observed, however, that this 

 is a favourite notion with many continental naturalists, and 

 by no means confined to Fungi, or even to the vegetable 

 kingdom, as some appear to be of opinion that all organized 

 beings have thus been produced, in consequence of laws imposed 

 on matter by the Creator ; wliile a few less scrupulous do not 

 hesitate to descend into the very depths of materialism. As 

 far then as any question may be raised with regard to the 

 propriety of considering Fungi as real vegetables at all, even 

 if the above stated opinion as to their origin be held correct, 

 by parity of reasoning, their right to be so deemed is evident. 

 And according to the views of these writers, it is no objection 

 to such origin that they contain organs evidently destined for 

 the reproduction of the species, because it appears to be the 

 opinion of most of them, that though they originate by an 

 equivocal generation, they can, when once developed, reproduce 

 their species by seed. 



It is not to be denied that difficulties about the appearance 

 oi Fungi, as of various other plants and animals, are often great ; 

 but it seems to me rash and precipitate in the extreme, because 

 of a few points which at present bailie our powers of investiga- 

 tion, to have recourse to a principle which its supporters, at 

 least as many as are at .ill of an humble and submissive frame 

 of mind, dare not follow out into all its consequences. For my 

 own part I can affirm, without hesitation, that I have never 

 read a single essay of these writers without being struck with 

 the utter inconclusiveness of their reasonings, and with their 

 Ktrange oversight of points which make against them so plainly 

 and palpably that the most ordinary unprejudiced reader could 

 not fail to seize them. 



As to many entophytal parasites, such as Urcdines, &c., it is 

 a fair question whether they may not be mere developments 

 (anamorphoses, as it is termed) of the tissue of those plants on 

 which they are produced, though I believe that such an opinion 

 is untenable, and if it be proved that they are propagated by 

 seed, which is the fact, as far as the case admits of proof, they 

 are most clearly true Fungi, and the question then resolves 

 itself into the general one as to the mode of their origin. 



Little is known at present with respect to the geographical 

 distribution of Fungi, though the study of them with Xh\% 

 especial view would clearly not be devoid of interest. Many, 

 indeed, are found in every part of the world, but various forms 

 are likewise confined within certain limits, and, as in the higher 



