XI1I.] ABOUT FUNGI. 187 
piece, and spread it out flat, it would cover an im- 
mense surface, as compared with the size of the 
pileus, for it is plaited or folded like a lady’s fan 
over the whole of the gill-plates, or lamellz, of the 
fungus.” * 
It is upon the characters of the spore-bearing sur- 
faces that the fungologist relies for guidance in classi- 
fication. Upon these characters he classes all fungi 
in two great primary divisions, in the first of which 
(SPORIFERA) the spores are naked, ze., they are not 
enveloped in an ascus,; in the second division (SPORI- 
DIFERA) the spores ave enclosed in asez, as in Mucor. 
Fig. 141 shows the manner in which these 
spores are borne in Agarics. S is the 
spores which are borne in fours upon a 
projection (B, ie basidium) from the gill- 
plate. On the variations in these spore- 
bearing organs the orders and genera are 
based ; but it is impossible, in the limits of 
a chapter, to enter fully into the subject GU\s \ 
of classification, neither does such subject Fic. 147. 
come within the scope of a popular book. 
Those of our readers who wish to become fungologists 
we would refer to the works of the Rev. M. J. Berke- 
ley, M.A., F.L.S., and Dr. M. C. Cooke, M.A. 
Among this group of flowerless plants are to be 
found some of the most remarkable vegetable growths, 
and, without exaggeration, we may add, some of the 
most beautiful. No more delicately beautiful sight 
can be found among higher plants than a group of 
minute moulds under the microscope. It is a veri- 
* Dr. M. C. Cooke. 
