228 CHAPTERS ON FUNGI. [August, 



this they effect both by feeding on and disintegrating (by means 

 of their mycelium^ or spawn) the substance of the matrix on 

 which they grow. This^ combined with atmospheric influences, 

 soon produces complete decay. Some species^ however, which 

 grow on the ground, do not appear to be actually parasitic, but 

 are probably nourished in the same manner as the higher 

 plants. 



The mode in which Fungi are propagated is still somewhat 

 uncertain, and their appearance is often so strange and unex^ 

 pected that some writers have asserted that they are produced by 

 equivocal generation. But we know that in favourable circum- 

 stances all Fungi produce spores, or reproductive bodies analo- 

 gous to seeds, and it is therefore not unphilosophical, reasoning 

 from all the analogies of Nature, to allege that they are propa- 

 gated by means of these spores ; indeed this has been proved by 

 actual experiment in several instances. These seeds or spores 

 are generally inconceivably minute, and quite invisible to the 

 naked eye; and this being the case, it is not wonderful that 

 their dissemination should escape our notice. They may float in 

 the air, swim on the water, and be carried from place to place by 

 the rains and the winds of heaven, wholly unnoticed by us, until 

 they find a fit locality for germination, and even then they may 

 only germinate under certain conditions, concerning which we are 

 ignorant. Or they may penetrate the interior of other plants 

 along with the sap, and be developed when they reach their pro- 

 per habitat, and at their proper season. 



In concluding this chapter, let me recommend the study of 

 the Fungi to those botanists who have exhausted the phsenoga- 

 mous plants of their district, and who may not have taken up 

 any particular branch of cryptogamic botany. It will impart an 

 interest to their every walk, of which they have probably no idea. 

 Almost every dead branch or stump of a tree, almost every dead 

 leaf or decaying vegetable, has a Fungus on it, and in many cases 

 peculiar to it. The examination of these, and especially of their 

 internal structure, by the aid of the microscope, is highly in- 

 teresting, and will afford much gratification to those who take 

 pleasure in tracing the hand of the great Creator in all his 

 works. The wonderful and beautiful organization displayed in 

 these lower vegetables, especially in the smaller kinds, fills the 

 mind with astonishment and admiration, and we are tempted to 



