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observations, where he has indicated the passage of basidia into cystidia, and his 
remarks on the upper surface of the ring which grows round the middle of the stem 
in Agaricus muscarius. In this latter position Hoffmann found a quantity of 
gelatinous knots, from which projected one or more oscillating threads, terminated 
frequently with a little head, which occasionally becomes detached. My interpre- 
tation of these observations is, that Hoffmann lighted upon the fallen cystidia on 
the upper surface of the ring, where they were throwing out threads. Hedwig 
made somewhat similar observations on the ring in Agaricus. 
From the condition of the infant plant, as figured on the hymenium, 
plate I. z, and plate V. ©, it is easy to trace the young fungus through the various 
stages of its growth, as seen at plate VI., where the figures are all enlarged 500 
diameters, the lower group of cells shows a plant of seven days’ growth in the 
expressed juice of horse-dung. In all these figures it will be seen that crystals and 
spores are carried up by the cells, and the lower figure conclusively shows that the 
first cells of the new plant are the large ones which belong to the pileus ; indeed 
the hairs of the pileus as here shown are amongst the earliest cells produced, these 
hairs and the threads of the mycelium (which is always highly granular near the 
plant) are almost one and the same in character. In plate VI. and in plate VII. 
the infant fungus resembles a Puff-ball, to which it indeed bears a certain natural 
relationship. The whole plant in infancy is enveloped in a wrapper of cells the 
fructification being entirely concealed within. In the lower figure on plate VI. 
may be seen two spermatozoids which have burst, and K K K shows the cells of 
straw. 
When the fungus has made about the number of cells represented on the 
bottom of plate VI. the growth cannot be carried any further beneath a covering 
glass. Plate VII. represents on one side the elevation, and on the other the 
section of the very smallest infant plant it is possible to see with a lens on the 
dung. The fungus represented is magnified 200 diameters, and the original was 
about half the size of a pin’s head (see A A A sketch in margin). The nature of 
the hairy coating, which forms the veil and the cells which are to form the future 
gills, are here clearly seen. This figure shows the fungus in its Puff-ball condition 
at the time when the cells are being actively produced. It contains only a small 
proportion of the actual cells which go to make up a perfect fungus, and represents 
probably a full week’s growth from the spores. How it is the cells have an 
inherent property of building themselves up into a particular design, no one 
knows any more than it is known how the fine spark of life is kept up in these cells 
from one generation to another. 
The mycelium now grows in a radiate manner from the base of the young plant, 
just as a germinating seed throws up a plumule and throws down a radicle. This 
mycelium being the produce of fertilisation is now capable, under certain condi- 
tions, of producing new plants on certain spots on the threads, Spores are now 
unnecessary, in the same way as fresh seeds are unnecessary where the creeping 
root-stock of Couch-grass is present. Or the mycelium may go to rest in the form 
of cords or thick threads, when it is termed Rhizomorpha, or in the form of knots 
