194 ON FUNGI. 



maintain the former position, unsupported as it is by evidence, 

 and unwarranted by Scripture, and it will not be worth while to 

 take further notice of it. The a priori argument made out against 

 the latter is such as no evidence can surmount, for the alternative 

 is infidelity. 



Many of the German theorists comprehend all plants', Phanero- 

 gamous as well as Cryptogamous, as being the offspring of equiv- 

 ocal generation, but as no one among us is very likely to take up 

 this ground, I may be allowed to assume the contrary, as respects 

 the Phanrogamae as matter of fact. This being admitted, gives 

 us the argument of analogy in favour of Fungi being propagated 

 always by their sporules. Of those who apply the theory alone to 

 the Cryptogamae, the following are the principal arguments 

 against the analogy, or in other words, against the vegetability 

 of Fungi. 



1. They grow with a degree of rapidity unknown in other 

 plants, acquiring the volume of many inches in the space of a 

 night. 



2. They are frequently meteoric, i. e., spring up alcer storms, 

 or only in particular states of the atmosphere. 



3. It is possible to obtain particular species with certainty by 

 an ascertained mixture of organic and inorganic matter in certain 

 states of the atmosphere, as in the process adopted by gardeners 

 for obtaining the Agaricus campestris, a process so certain that 

 no other kind of Agaricus is ever produced in mushroom-beds. 



4. " Fungi are produced constantly upon the same kind of 

 matter and upon nothing else, as the species that are parasitic on 

 leaves, cheese, &c." (Lind. Nat. Syst.) 



5. They often occur in places impenetrable to the atmosphere, 

 as in the case instanced by Cryptos. 



The first of these arguments will be at once allowed to be of 

 little weight, depending as it does upon a comparative character ; 

 for if Fungi be excluded from the vegetable kingdom because 

 they grow faster than gourds ; on the same principle the latter 

 ought also to be excluded, as growing faster than many other 

 plants. 



The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, are immediately connected with one- 

 another, and a single answer will comprehend all. 



Nature acts according to certain fixed laws ; according to these 

 laws a certain effect will always result from the coincidence of 

 certain conditions, these conditions not coinciding, that effect will 



