Thalloge.ns.] 



FUNGALES. 



29 



Alliance II. FUNGALES.— l^m, Fungal Alliance.* 



Fungi, Jtiss. Gen. 3. (1789) ; DC. Fl. Fr. 2. 65. (1815) ; Nees das Si/stem der Pilze und Schwdmrne, 

 (1817); Fries Syst. Mycolog. (1821) ; 8yst. Orb. Veg. (1825) ; Elench. Fung. (1828) ; Adolphe 

 Brongn. in Diet. Class. 5. 155. (1824) ; Grev. Scott. Crypt. Fl. 6. (1828) ; Hooker British Flora, 

 457. (1830) ; Berk, in Id. vol. 2. pt.'2. (1835); Montagne in Hist, de Cuba Bot. p. 239. (1838-1842), 

 translated, with Notes, in Ann. of Nat. Hist. vol. 9. p. 1. by Berk. (1842; ; Corda Anleitung, (1842,. 

 — Epiphytje, Link; Grev. Fl. Edin. xxv. (1824).— Gasteromyci, Grev. Fl. Edin. x.\iv. (1824).— 

 Mycetes, Spreng. Syst. 4, 376. (1827).— Uredinese, MucedineBe, and Lycoperdacese, Ad. Brov^n. 

 in Diet. Class. I. c. (1824).— Byssaceae, (in part) Fr. Syst. Orb. Veg. (1825). 



Diagnosis. — Cellular floioerless plants, noui^ished throur/h their ihallus {spcmm or myceli- 

 um) ; living in air ; propagated by spores colourless or Irotcn, and sometimes inclosed 

 in asci ; destitute of green gonidia. 



1 2 



Fig. XIII. 



Plants consisting of a congeries of cellules or filaments, or both variously combined, 

 increasing in size in the more perfect species by addition to their inside, their outside 

 undergoing no change after its first formation, chiefly growmg upon decayed organic 

 substances, or soil arising from their decomposition, frequently ephemeral, and variously 

 coloured, never accompanied as in Lichens by reproductive germs of a vegetable green 

 called gonidia ; nourished by juices derived from the matrix. Fructification either 

 spores attached externally, and often in definite numbers, to the cellular tissue, and 

 frequently on pecuhar cells called sporophores or basidia, which ai^e in many cases 

 .surmounted by fine processes which immediately support the spores, and called spicules 

 or sterigmata ; or inclosed in membranous sacs or asci, and then termed sporidia. 

 Vessels of the latex have been observed in Agaricus foetens, by Corda. Spiral filaments, 

 like the elaters of Jungermannia, exist in Trichia and Batarrea. They were first 

 detected by the younger Hedwig, and described afterwards by Kunze and Coi-da. Mr. 

 Berkeley detected them in the latter genus, and has very recently observed them, but 

 very sparingly in Podaxon. The spores of fungi germinate either by a simple elonga- 



* It is impossible to look at the huge mass of genera collected by Botanists under the name of Fungi, 

 without perceiving that they in truth consist of groups equivalent to those called Natural Orders in the 

 Algal AUiance, as well as in other parts of this arrangement. And if I had such an acquaintance with 

 the subject as would justify my doing so, I should have presumed to break up the membei-s of this 

 Alliance into similar orders. It would, however, be presumptuous in me, with whom Fungi have never 

 been a special study, to disturb the arrangements of those learned men who have made this investigation 

 the business of their lives. 



The following admirable account of the Alliance has been most kindly prepared by the Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley, whose knowledge of the species is unequalled in this or any other country. Tliis gentleman 

 permits me to state, that in his opinion the divisions here called orders may be regarded as Natural 

 Orders, in the sense in which that term is applied to Algals. 



Fig. XIII.— 1. ArcjTiaflava ; 2. Geastrum multifidum ; 3. Mucor caninus ; 4. Hymenium of an Agaric ; 

 5. Agaricus cepaestipes ; 6. Vermicularia trichella ; 7. Vertical section of Hypoxylon punctatum ; 8. 

 Angioridium sinuosum. From Greville's Cryptogamic Flora, with the exception of No. 4. 



