of ruminants, differs from its congeners in 
some striking particulars. It has not acom- 
pletely cloven horny hoof, but only a small 
nail at the anterior extremity of each lobe, 
(doigt,) and a kind of callous very hard sole 
common tothem both: the lobes themselves 
"are separated from each other by a shallow 
furrow. In the lower jaw it has six cutting 
and two canine teeth; if the upper, it has 
two cutting teeth inserted in the os inter- 
© maxillare, a character found in no other 
Fuminating animal, and one or two canine 
on each side, which become rather large as 
they grow old. he grinders are exactly 
simular to those of other ruminants. It has 
_ five stomachs ; but the fitth is only an appen- 
dix to the paunch, and serves to hold a cer- 
_ tain quantity of water, which the animal 
forces back into its mouth, when it is seusi- 
ble of thirst. 
*« The camel genus is confined within a 
zone of three or four hundred leagues in 
breadth, and which extends in length from 
Morocco to China. One of its species, the 
eamel with one dorsal bunch or the drome- 
dary, occupies the whole length on its sou- 
thern side: the other, the camel with two 
+ bunches, or the camel properly so called, is 
found on its northern side, but only from 
the ancient Bactrianato Persia. The former, 
though a native of a warm climate, cannot 
bear excessive heat: it ceases both in Africa 
and in the East Indies, where the elephant 
commences, and cannot comfortably lve 
either under the burning sky of the torrid, or 
in the mild air of a temperate zone. The lat- 
ter, though best suited to a temperate climate, 
can subsist in a more rigorous one ; for it 
has been brought by the Buretes and Monguls 
as far north as the Lake Baikal. Bactriana, 
now Turkestan, appears to be its original 
_ habitation ; and there it is now found in the 
eatest abundance. 
‘© It is only the camel with two bunches 
which has preserved the ancientname. The 
other has received the denomination of dro- 
' medary, though, as we shall sce under that 
article, the word dromedary, in its proper 
sense, is confined to such individuals of the 
species as have been trained for riding and 
: excel in swiftness.” 
* ¥ * 
_  Cramprenons (mushroom), the firstand 
lowest family in the scale of vegetable life. 
The different species of which it is composed 
resemble other plants solely in their mode of 
growth ; and differ from them in having 
neither leaves nor flowers, nor any thing of 
~ an herbaceous nature, and being more simple 
in their form and organisation, 
«© Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny,,and 
all the ancients in general, attribute the ori- 
gin of mushrooms to a certain viscous sub- 
Abb ce produced by vegetable putrefaction. 
Their commentators have been of the same 
opinion, Clusius is the first who asserted 
“that mushrooms spring from seeds. Boe- 
. ‘gene, Meytzel, ‘Tournefort, Micheli, and 
; 
) 
4 
NOUVEAU DICTIONNAIRE D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE, &c. 
869 
afterwards Gleditch, Haller, Hedwig, Lin- 
neus, Beauvois, and above all Bulliard, have 
supported the same side of the question. 
‘« The discovery of animalcula indyced 
several learned men, Butner, Weis, Muller, 
Scopoli, &c. to suppose that mushrooms have 
an.animal origin: and Necker and Medicus, 
two German naturalists, have recently consi- 
dered them, the former as a new union of the 
decomposed cellular tissue of vegetables ; the 
latter as a decomposition of their pith ang 
juice, which change their nature by meang 
.a certain quantity of water and heat ; that 
is, to adopt the author’s own language, mushe 
rooms are a vegetable crystallization. 
<* It was reserved for Bulliard to dissipate 
the doubt of naturalists, by proving that 
mushrooms are organised nearly in the same 
manner as staminiferous vegetables ; that they 
have fibres, vessels, roots, Howers, and seeds 
that they have a primary developement, a 
gradual increase, and a succeedmg’ decay ; 
and that they do not finally perish till, like 
all other organised beings, provision has been 
made for the continuance of the species. 
«© In fact, says Bulliard, no mushroom 
can exist which has not been produced from 
the seed of another individual; and that 
which is vulgarly called the spawn of mush- 
rooms, is nothing but the secds agglutinated 
to some other bodys The seeds of most 
mushrooms may easily be obtained by laying 
them, when fresh, upon a glass, which wil 
soon be covered with them. As in other 
vegetables, they differ in number, situation, 
insertion, size, form, colour, &c. Some may 
easily be discovered without the aid of alens: 
others are so small that the strongest magni- 
fying power can scarcely render them visible. 
These seeds transported by the winds, attach 
themselves to different bodies, by means of a 
gluten which moistens their suriace, are car- 
ried by rain into the earth, and if cireum- 
stances favour their developement, whole 
fields are soon covered with mushrooms. 
«« All these facts have been established by 
Bulliard ; but still ithas not been fally prov~ 
ed that these rudiments of a future plant 
are really seeds. Gaertner is of opinion that 
they are a kind of gems or buds. I myself 
sugeested this idea to Bulliard, when I was 
engaged with him in making experiments on 
the subject; but though it is supported by 
the analogy of aleyones, and other polvpes, 
as determined by the experiments of ‘Trem- 
bley and others, which | repeated at the same 
time, he was not willing to admit it as a ge- 
neral principle, and yet acktowledged it ta 
be just in the case of the esculent truffle. 
‘© T have since examined numerous indi-« 
viduals of both these classes of organised 
beings, and strengthened by the authority of 
so able a judge as Gartner, with the reeent 
one of Mirbel, I am fully convinced that 
these rudiments of mushrooms are true buds, 
separated from the plant nearly in the sare 
manner as the young polype is separated fram 
. Sie . 
its parent. This process we shall further 
SHS ws f 
