the Natural Distribution of Lisccts and Fungi. 259 



natural group complete in all its parts, there the determinate 

 number is^t'?. 



Now, on considering that his work was given to the world 

 two 3-ears after the first part of the Horce Entomologiae, it is 

 clear that, had M. Fries fixed at once on the number five, 

 there might have been room for supposing, that he had not 

 altogether trusted to his own observation, but had borrowed 

 the idea of a quinary distribution. As matters however at 

 present stand, this supposition cannot for a moment be har- 

 boured ; and I cannot help rejoicing that the strength of this 

 beautiful theory should be so completely brought home to 

 the conviction of every mind, as it must be, by observing the 

 manner in which diff'ereut persons have respectively stumbled 

 u]5on it in totally distinct departments of the creation. We 

 may all possibly be wrong in part, or even in much of our 

 respective details ; but however this may be, it is difficult not 

 to believe that we are grasping at some great truth, which a 

 short lapse of time will perhaps develop in all its beauty, and 

 at length place in the possession of every observer of nature. 



It may be well to note, that M. Fries draws in the clearest 

 manner a distinction between his Hysteroplnjta or Fungi, and 

 the Protophjta, which is a natural group consisting of the 

 linna^an Algts and Lichcnes. He proves that they form two 

 distinct series of vegetables having analogous exterior forms 

 at their con-esponding points. Hence, according to what has 

 preceded, the Protophi/ta and Fungi form in the vegetable 

 kingdom two primary groups of equal degree. In Protophijta 

 fructification is secondary, and the thallus essential ; whereas 

 in Fungi it is quite the reverse. According to our author, the 

 first-born of Flora may all be accounted as essentially roots, 

 and representing the mode of nutrition ; while every fungus 

 is as truly and representatively connected with fructification 

 and reproduction. Throwing aside other considerations, we 

 may perceive the analogous groups of the animal kingdom to 

 be likewise constructed on a similar plan. Each o{\S\g Acrita, 

 for example, imbibing nourishment at every })ore of their sur- 

 i'ace, internal or external, is essentially a stomach, while the 

 situation of the singular ovaries of the Badiata cannot fail to 

 remind us of the importance and position of the sporidia in 

 Fungi. The umbellate Mec/z/iY/, the Ec/iinus, {he Astcrias, and 

 the Pria]>ulus, have all their representatives in mycology, of 

 which the genera Lijropcrdon and Phallus are noted in- 

 stances ; so that the analogy oltlie lladiated animals to Fungi 

 is complete; and we thus have in organizctl matter tlie follow- 

 ing )w<> scries of grou|ys comiected by afiinity and analogous 

 nl their corresponding points ; 



K k 2 Animai.ia. 



