Notice of Fries’ Systema Mycologicum. 235 
ART. a of Fries’ Systema Mycologicum; by 
E. Davis, Principal of Westfield Academy. 
THE fungi have probably received less attention than any 
other part of botany. The reason is obvious, it is a difficult 
undertaking to explore such a boundless field of evanescent 
substances. Some of them are daily changing their appear- 
ance, but must be examined at a particular stage of their ex- 
istence, or they will not exhibit the characters ascribed to 
them in the books. Furthermore, the preservation of them 
is difficult, so that different collections cannot be compared ; 
and very few persons find leisure from their various occupa- 
tions, to devote themselves to a subject requiring such accu- 
ite observation, and such patient investigation. A want of 
—_ also, prevents not a few from eritering this field of re- 
search 
My ‘object i in this communication, however, is to give a 
com mpendious view of a natural system of the fungi, as exhib- 
ited in the introduction of the work named at the head of this 
article. The first volume was published at Land, Siesey, 
A. D. 1821, and the second in 1822; the remaining part 
the work I have not seen, and I knoe not fwlteic? its publi- 
cation has been completed. 
The natural systems most approved, have divided plants 
into natural classes, according to the number of cotyledons 
and petals, or position of the stamens, Our author says those 
are in error who derive the chief distinction of classes pee 
the external prot and that all the iat ae of genera 
&c. arise mee mutual relation elements in ‘hel 
— less | odern € vant y has discovered 
that the elements ae in definite proportions, and it 
that a Se ee of species is to be derived from these alone. 
All those plants whose elements are combine in the same 
pro ibe F aoetittte a class, which is characterized by some 
essential organ. The — of the organ is an index’ of 
entar u 
aa se who Se eadeet af a fungus is determined by what the 
‘Jee calls cosmica momenta, of which there are four—I, 
Nisus reproductivus, or earth aid water. 2, Air. 3, Caloric. 
4, Light. The first is the principal agent in preding spo- 
ridia, or fruit, the first and’ second in ‘producing floccos, or 
elongated fibres, on which the fruit appears ; the first and 
