CRYPTOGAMIA. 379 



painter and the botanist has long been desired, re- 

 lative to the genus in question, which is now sup- 

 plied by the Hlstoria Fucoriim of tlie writer last 

 mentioned, and his friend IMr. W. J. Hooker. 



5. Fungi. Mushrooms. These cannot properl}' be 

 said to have any herbage. Their substance is tleshy, 

 generally of quick growth and short duration, dif- 

 fering in firmness, from a watery pulp to a leathery 

 or even woody texture. By some naturalists they 

 have been thought of an animal nature, chiefly be- 

 cause of their foetid scent in decay, and because 

 little w^hite bodies like eggs are found in them at 

 that period. But these are truly the e^igs of flies, 

 laid there by the parent insect, and destined to pro- 

 duce a brood of ma«fo;ots, to feed on the decaying 

 fungus, as on a dead carcase. Ellis's beautiful 

 discoveries, relative to corals and their inhabiting 

 polypes, led to the strange analogical hypothesis 

 that these insects formed the fungus, which Mun- 

 chausen and others have asserted. Some have 

 thought fungi w^ere composed of the sap of cor- 

 rupted wood, transmuted into a new sort of being; 

 an idea as unphilosophical as the former, and un- 

 supported by any semblance of truth. 



Dryander, Schgefter and Hedwig have, on much 

 better grounds, asserted their vegetable nature, de- 

 tected their seeds, and in many cases explained their 

 parts of fructification. In fact, they propagate their 



