334 



CCLXXI. FUNGI. The Mushroom Tribe. 



FuKGi, Juss. Gen. 3. (1789) ; Dec. Fl. Fr. 2. G5. (1815) ; Nees das Si/stem der Pilze nnd. 

 SchwUmme, (1817); Fries St/st. Mycolog. (1821); Sysl. Orb. Vey. (1825); Adolphe 

 Brongn. in Diet. Class. 5. 155. (1824); Grev. Scott. Crypt. Fl. 6. (1828); Houker 

 British Fhra, 45?. (1830). — EpiPHYTiE, Link ; Grev. Fd.Edin. xxv. (1824).— 



Gasteromyci, Grev. Fl. Edin. xxiv. (1824) Byssoide^e, Grev. Fl. Edin. xxv. 



(1824); Fries Syst. Orb. Veg. (1825); Grev. Scott. Crypt. FHi. {]828) My- 



CETES, Spreng. Sysl. 4. 37G. (1827) UnEniNEiE, Mucedine/E, and Lyco- 



PERDACE^E, Ad. Brongn. in Diet. Class. I. c. (1824.) 



Diagnosis. Aerial, leafless, flowerless plants, with no tliallus or exter- 

 nal sporuliferous disks. 



Anomalies. Sphaerias approach Lichens in their structure: they are 

 known by their want of thallus. 



Essential Character Plants consisting of a congeries of cellules, among which 



filaments are occasionally intermixed, increasing in size hy addition to their inside, their 

 outside undergoing no change after its first formation, chiefly gi-owing upon decayed sub- 

 stances, frequently ephemeral, and variously coloured. Sporules Ijnng either loose among 

 the tissue, or enclosed in membranous cases called sporidia. 



Affinities. These are only distinguished from Lichens by their more 

 fugitive nature, their more succulent texture, their want of a thallus or 

 expansion independent of the part that bears the reproductive matter, and 

 by the latter being contained within their substance and not in hard distinct 

 nuclei originating in the centre and breaking through a cortical layer. From 

 Algae there is no absolute character of division, except their never growing 

 in water; in fact, it is, as has been before stated, rather the medium in which 

 Fungi and Algse are developed that distinguishes them, than any peculiarity 

 in their own organisation : for instance, the aeria! Byssaceae, which are Fungi, 

 are nearly the same in structure as the aquatic Hydronemateae, which are 

 Algae. While there is so near an approximation of these families to each 

 other, particularly in the simplest forms, it is important to remark that no 

 spontaneous motion has been observed in Fungi, which, therefore, cannot be 

 considered so closely allied to the animal kingdom as Algae, notwithstanding 

 the presence of azote in them, and the near resemblance of the substance by 

 chemists called Fungin, to animal matter. 



Fungi are almost universally found growing upon decayed animal or 

 vegetable substances, and scarcely ever upon living bodies of either king- 

 dom ; in which respect they differ from Lichens, which very commonly grow 

 upon the living bark of trees. They are, however, not confined to dead 

 or putrid substances, as is shewn by their attacking various plants when 

 in a state of perfect life and vigour. In their simplest form they are little 

 articulated filaments, composed of simple cellules placed end to end ; such 

 is the mouldiness that is found upon various substances, the mildew of 

 the Rose-bush, and, in short, all the tribes of Mucor and Mucodo ; in some 

 of these the joints disarticulate, and appear to be capable of reproduction ; 

 in others sporules collect in the terminal joints, and are finally dispersed by 

 the rupture of the cellule that contained them. In a higher state of compo- 

 sition. Fungi are masses of cellular tissue of a determinate figure, the whole 

 centre of which consists of sporules either lying naked among filaments, as 

 in the Puff'-balls, or contained in membranous tubes or sporidia, like the 

 thecac of Lichens, as in the Spha;rias. In their most complete state they 

 consist of two surfaces, one of which is even and imperforate, like the cor- 

 tical layer in Lichens ; the other separated into plates or cells, and called 

 the hynienium, in which the sporules are deposited. 



