THE STUDY OF FUNGI. 147 
Now about fungi themselves, What is their place in the vegetable 
kingdom? How are they especially to be distinguished from their allies? 
Acknowledging that all lines of demarcation are optional and therefore 
not necessarily rigid, there are certain means by which fungi are 
separated from their close companions, Algw~ and Lichens, An Alga 
draws its nourishment through the whole ofits surface from the water in 
which it grows, or the excessively moist place of its existence, which is 
the same to it as water. Besides this, it is propagated by means of 
zoospores, tetraspores, &c. Lichens are propagated by means of sporidia 
contained in asci, also by green bodies, which occur in their frond or 
thallus, called gonidia. Fungi are propagated by spores or sporidia, and 
they are nourished from the substance on which they grow through their 
mycelium. They never have gonidialike lichens. ‘‘ Their fructification 
consists either of cells attached externally to threads, which either arise 
immediately from their mycelium or from a special fructificative tissue, 
and which are then called spores, or of similar bodies produced in little 
sacs or tubes, and then called sporidia.” A singular fact is observable 
about fungi, so singularindeed that it has been proposed to assign them a 
special locality between the animal and vegetable kingdoms; they absorb 
oxygen and give out carbonic acid ; hence in this respect their office seems 
to be like that of an animal, in confirmation of which you will never 
find a fungus with the beautiful green colour of vegetables; but, if there 
be green at all, it is invariably of a metallic tint. 
Let us now examine some of the uses of fungi. Amongst other 
things they assist in destroying vegetable matter which would otherwise 
be most offensive and pestilential ; decaying plants, unless fungi attacked 
them, would be simply intolerable. M. Roumeguére, in a work published 
in 1870, called ‘‘ Cryptogamie Illustrée,” gives a list of 220 fungi which 
grow on the different parts of the Fagus sylvatica, and yet the beech is 
one of the mildest examples we could select, inasmuch as the leaves are 
anything but fleshy, and their decay would cause less smell than many 
others when decomposition sets in. How beautifully God has arranged 
for this decay without injury to our health. The spores and sporidia— 
in familiar language, the seeds—of fungi are wafted through the air in 
myriads, they are infinitely small, but of such specific gravity that in due 
course of time they fall and settle on some object. Multitudes of course 
perish from lack of the exact spot and accompaniments necessary to 
cause growth. Many begin to vegetate, but their requirements are not 
there in full, they die in their very cradle. But supposing a spore or 
sporidium finds everything adapted for it, how does it grow? It does so 
by means of its mycelium. Moisture, which is essential to the life of 
fungi, causes a process to start from the spore, which elongates, 
branches out in all directions, and penetrates even into the hardest 
woods; and, as it feeds upon the parts that it touches, consumes the 
matter around it, and so rapidly hastens decay. By this beautiful 
arrangement, the very substances which are poisons to us form its 
food. If there were no fungi there would be far more illness. 
It is very singular how different forms of fructification proceed from 
the same mycelium. If a mycelium produced only one form of fruit, 
