202 FOO TNO TES FROM 



difference of form only that gives a longer terra of life 

 to the Wellingtonia than to the Bread-mould 1 We 

 cannot by any search ascertain the source of life in the 

 fresh seed, or account for the decay by which mature 

 development is followed, and there is nothing in the 

 structure of any plant, or indeed of any created thing, 

 out of which the assigned limit of its life could be 

 found. It is an impenetrable mystery, to be referred 

 humbly to the simple exercise of the Creator's will. 



Fungi are extremely simple in their organization. 

 They bring us back to first principles, and reveal to us 

 the secret manner in which nature builds up her most 

 complicated vegetable structures. They are composed 

 entirely of cellular tissue, of a definite aggregation of 

 loose, more or less oval, elliptical cells, with cavities be- 

 tween them. These cells in many species may be seen 

 by the naked eye, and consist of little closed sacks of 

 transparent colourless membrane. Here is the starting- 

 point of life. Such cells are the primary germ or element 

 from which every living thing, whether plant or animal, 

 is produced. The whole process of vegetable growth is 

 but a continuous multiplication of these cells ; new 

 ones being formed within the old ones when their nutri- 

 ent matter increases in quantity beyond a certain point, 

 which then dissolve and disappear, while the secondary 

 or daughter cells in their turn produce two, four, 

 eight, or more young cells to occupy their places, and so 

 on till the number of cells becomes multiplied beyond 

 calculation. In the flowering plants the various vessels 

 and organs arise in a differentiation, or a setting apart 

 of particular groups of these cells, and altering their 



