260 THE MOUNTAIN. 



Something of the extent of the alliance as distributed over 

 the earth, and enumerated by Lindley, may be inferred from 

 the fact that the species, long since described, amounted to 

 2500. 



The Order Fungi, of the class Thallophytes, is one of 

 the most curious and interesting of the whole vegetable 

 series. Yiewed with reference to their complex structure, 

 their strange and eccentric habits ; their peculiar economic 

 function in the organic world ; their chemical composition 

 and special relations, — they constitute a wonderful order of 

 plants. 



•"A full account of the diversified modifications of struc- 

 ture that Fungi display, and of the remarkable points of 

 their economy, would require a volume. '"^ Something of this 

 vastness of range in numbers and affinities may be imagined 

 from the general enumeration of the "Yegetable King- 

 dom, "f (Alliance 11 Fungales,) amounting to 598 genera 

 and 4000 species. The forests of the Alleghany Mountain, 

 with their extensive variety of decomposing vegetable mat- 

 ter, give a large catalogue of mushrooms. 



The last, but not least wonderful of the Thallogens, is 

 the Order Alg^. It is a vast family, swarming in myriads 

 through seas, rivers, brooks, and pools, and growing some- 

 times on wet and humid earth. The Algals are of all dimen- 

 sions, forms, and colors, from microscopic points floating in 

 water as motes swim in the sunbeam, to trailing, leathery 

 masses, hundreds of feet in length, and from transparent 

 mucus scums, to brilliantly tinted sheets dyed with all the 

 colors of the rainbow. This order and its subdivisions also 

 occupy a singular and questionable position in the scale 

 of organisms. Of this ambiguity Lindley observes : — " It 

 is here that the transition from animals to plants, whatever 

 its true nature may be, occurs ; for it is incontestable, as 

 the varying statements of original observers testify, that no 

 man can certainly say whether many of the organic bodies 



* Asa Gray. f John Lindley. 



