364 



HIGHER FORMS OF FUNGI. 



posable Albuminous matter, — so does it seem probable, on a con- 

 sideration of all the phenomena of the Potato and Vine-diseases, 

 that neither the Botrytis of the one nor the Oidium of the other 

 will vegetate in perfectly healthy plants ; but that a disordered 

 condition, induced either by forcing and therefore unnatural 

 systems of cultivation, or by unfavourable seasons, or by a com- 

 bination of both, is necessary as a ' predisposing ' condition. 



271. In those lower forms of this Class to which our notice of it 

 has hitherto been chiefly restricted, there is not any very complete 



a Fig. 174. b 



JEcidium tussilaginis : — a, portion of the plant magnified ; b, section 

 of one of the conceptacles with its spores. 



separation between the Nutritive or vegetative and the Reproductive 

 portions ; every cell, as in the simplest Protophytes, being equally 

 concerned in both. But such a'separation makes itself apparent 



Fig. 175. 



Clavaria crispula :—a, portion of the mycelium magnified. 



in the higher ; and this in a very curious mode. For the ostensible 

 Fungi of almost every description (Fig. 174) consist, in fact, of 



