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Upon this kind of difference of structure, Fungi have not only been 

 divided into distinctly marked tribes, but it has been proposed to separate 

 certain orders from them under the name of Byssacese, Gasteromyci, and 

 Hypoxyla : the first comprehending the filamentous Fungi found in cellars, 

 and similar plants; the second Lycoperdons and the like ; and the third 

 species which approach Lichens in the formation of a distinct nucleus for the 

 sporules, such as Sphseria. But it appears to me better to consider all these 

 mere forms of one great vegetable group. 



Some writers have questioned the propriety of considering Fungi as 

 plants, and have proposed to establish them as an independent kingdom, 

 equally distinct from animals and vegetables; others have entertained doubts 

 of their being more than mere fortuitous developements of vegetable matter, 

 called into action by special conditions of light, heat, earth, and air — doubts 

 which have been caused by some remarkable circumstances connected with 

 their developement, the most material of which are the following : they grow 

 with a degree of rapidity unknown in other plants, acquiring the volume of 

 many inches in the space of a night, and are frequently meteoric, that is, 

 spring up after storms, or only in particular states of the atmosphere. It is 

 possible to increase particular species with certainty, by an ascertained mixture 

 of organic and inorganic matter exposed to well-known atmospheric con- 

 ditions, as is proved by the process adopted by gardeners for obtaining Aga- 

 ricus campestris ; a process so certain, that no one ever saw any other kind 

 of Agaricus produced in Mushroom-beds ; this could not happen if the 

 Mushrooms sprang from seeds or sporules floating in the air, as in that case 

 many species would necessarily be mixed together ; they are often produced 

 constantly upon the same kind of matter, and upon nothing else, such as 

 the species that are parasitic upon leaves : all which is considered strong 

 evidence of the production of Fungi being accidental, and not analogous to 

 that of perfect plants. Fries, however, whose opinion must have great weight 

 in all questions relating to Fungi, argues against these notions in the follow- 

 ing manner : " Their sporules are so infinite (in a single individual of Reticu- 

 laria maxima I have counted above 10,000,000), so subtile (they are scarcely 

 visible to the naked eye, and often resemble thin smoke), so light (raised, 

 perhaps, by evaporation into the atmosphere), and are dispersed in so many 

 ways (by the attraction of the sun, by insects, wind, elasticity, adhesion, &c.), 

 that it is difficult to conceive a place from which they can be excluded." I 

 give his words as nearly as possible, because they may be considered the sum 

 of all that has to be urged against the doctrine of equivocal generation in 

 Fungi ; but without admitting, by any means, so much force in his statement 

 as is required to set the question at rest. In short, it is no answer to such 

 arguments as those just adverted to. It seems to me that a preliminary 

 examination is necessary into the existence of an exact analogy between all 

 the plants called Fungi ; a question which must be settled before any further 

 inquiry can be properly entered upon. That a number of the fungus-like 

 bodies found upon leaves are mere diseases of the cuticle, or of the subjacent 

 tissue, is by no means an uncommon opinion ; that many more, such as 

 the Byssaceae in particular, are irregular and accidental expansions of 

 vegetable tissue in the absence of light, is not improbable ; and it is 

 already certain that no inconsiderable number of the Fungi of botanists 

 are actually either, as various Rhizomorphas, the deformed roots of flowering 

 plants growing in cellars, clefts of rocks, and walls ; or mere stains upon the 

 surface of leaves, as Venularia grammica; or the rudiments of other Fungi, 

 as many of Persoon's Fibrillarias. Those who are anxious to inquire into 

 these and other points, are referred to Fries' works generally, to the various 



