THE 



FLORICULTURAL CABINET, 



SEPTEMBER 1st, 1839. 



PART I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



ARTICLE I. 

 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE VEGETATION OF FUNGI. 



BY P. B.S. B. 



In consequence of the communication of Cryptos in a late 

 No., I have been induced to prepare the present paper, from the 

 desire that the doctrine so pernicious in its tendency as the one 

 advocated in it, should not go forth among your readers, without 

 such proof of its fallacy, and meet refutation of the inference 

 drawn from him by the adduced fact as should remove the im- 

 pression in favour of the theory therein raised. I would observe, 

 however, that I entirely acquit Cryptos of any error other than 

 that of having deduced a wrong inference from an isolated fact ; 

 at the same time I would ask him to consider with what jealousy 

 the phenomena of any fact appearing to countenance such a doc- 

 trine should be examined before we allow ourselves to be con- 

 vinced that our inference is true, not only as it relates to the 

 philosophical question of fact is the subject of equivocal 

 generation of importance, but also as its assertion involves the 

 Atheistical doctrine of Materialism in its consequences ; for in 

 admitting it we must take up one or two positions, either we 

 must consider that the work of creation is yet incomplete, and 

 that each individual plant (we are more immediately concerned 

 about the Fungi, I shall therefore avoid all reference to Zoology, 

 though the same arguments hold,) is the effect of a special act of 

 His hand, or that each is, as the supporters of the theory define it, 

 a mere fortuitous developement of vegetable matter. Few will 

 Vol. VII. No. 79, z 



