30 



FUNGALES. 



[Thallogexs. 



tion of the episporium, or by the protusion of the miier membrane which exists in most 

 cases, and is easily separated from the outer m the asci of many species of Sphaeria. 

 Fungals absorb oxygen and exhale carbonic acid. They aboimd in nitrogen. 



Fmigals are distinguished from Lichens by their more fugitive nature, their more suc- 

 culent texture, their want of a thallus or expansion independent of the part that bears 

 the reproductive matter, but more especially, as Fries has pointed out in his lAchenogra- 

 phia Europcea, in their never contauiing germs distinct from the fructifying bodies of a 

 vegetable green so constant m Lichens. Many species mdeed of Sphseria accord very 

 closely m their mode of fructification, producing Uke the Lichens distinct nuclei in the 

 centre of their substance, which at length burst through the cortical layer, though the 

 fructifying disc is not exposed. In the Phacidiacei, however, the cups sometimes ap- 

 proach very nearly to the shield of Lichens ; so nearly, mdeed, that they are occasionally 

 mistaken for one another. 



From Algals there is, as regards stnicture, scarcely any palpable difference ; but the 

 most ob\dous distinction between Fungals and the two great di^-isions just mentioned con- 

 sists in their mode of growth. Lichens and Algals do not derive nutriment from the 

 substance on which they grow, but from the medivmi in which they are generated. Both 

 are produced occasionally on the hardest subtances, from which it is impossible that 



they should derive much nutriment.* 

 Fungals, on the contrary, live by imbib- 

 ing juices impregnated with the pe- 

 culiar principles of their matrix. 

 It is true that many species of 

 moulds will vegetate in liqmds with- 

 out any pecuhar point of attachment, 

 but these in general are in a very ano- 

 malous condition, and are in conse- 

 quence often refeiTcd to Algals ; but as 

 soon as they begin to revert to their 

 true characters, there is a distinction 

 between the free and submerged por- 

 tion, the former being supported by the 

 juices imbibed by the latter. A few 

 species indeed of Fmigals may almost be 

 called aquatic, such asCantharellusloba- 

 tus, Agaricus epichy slum, Feziza cla^iis, 

 Vibrissea truncorum, Leotia uliginosa ; 

 ^^^^vW^^^^^^^^^^^^ilP ^^v/^ ^"*^^* ^^ most of such cases it will be ob- 



^___J ,li^_____^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ served, that it is not the habit of the 



whole genus but merely exceptional ; 

 and in all there is an attachment to a 

 matrix, from which it is highly pro- 

 bable that a portion at least of their 

 nutriment is derived, especially in an 

 early stage of growth. In fact, these cases havmg been stated by way of anticipating 

 objections, it is rather the medium in which Fmigals and Algals are developed that 

 distinguishes them, than any peculiarity in their own organisation. While there is 

 so near an approximation of these families to each other, particularly in the simplest 

 forms, it is impoi'tant to remark that, " with a single exception," perhaps, no spontane- 

 ous motion has been observed in Fungals, which, therefore, cannot be considered so closely 

 alHed to the Animal Kingdom as Algals, notwithstanding the presence of nitrogen in them, 

 and the near resemblance of the substance by chemists called Fmigine, to animal 

 matter. Molecular motion, indeed, takes place m the particles which give consistence to 

 the milk of the lactescent Agarics, but this is very different from that Avhich has been 

 so repeatedly observed in Algals, and which is produced in many instances by minute 

 cilia which invest the reproductive bodies exactly as in the Animal Kingdom. Spon- 

 taneous motion has, however, been observed in Achlya prolifera, which is possibly a 

 species of Mucor developed in water ; Linn. 1843, p. 129. 



Fungals are almost universally found gro\\Tng upon decayed animal or vegetable 

 substances, and scarcely ever, except in the lower groups, upon Hving bodies of either 



Fig. XII. 



* It is, however, to be remembered, that observation has shown that Lichens corrode the hard bodies 

 on which they grow, from which it is, perhaps, to be inferred, that they do to a certain extent really feed 

 upon them. 



Fig. XII.— Mucor miicedo, very highly magnified, exhibiting 1, the spawn or mycelium. 



