CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



in their tissue of gonidia containing chlorophyl, 

 which are capable of originating new plants. 



The Lichens yield valuable dyes. Orchil, a red 

 dye, supposed to have supplied the purple of 

 ancient Tyre, is produced by Roccella tinctoria, a 

 Southern European species which was discovered 

 in the Cumbray Islands, in the west of Scotland, 

 by Professor Balfour in 1855. Cladonia rangifc- 

 rina is the Reindeer Moss, an important forage- 

 plant in Lapland. Species of Gyrophora (Tripe 

 de Roche) are edible, and furnished Franklin and 

 his companions with food for many weeks in arctic 

 regions. Cetraria tslandica, the Iceland moss, 

 contains starch and a bitter principle. Lecanora 

 tartarca, the rock-moss, supplies the cudbear dye ; 

 and Parmelia parietina yields a yellow dye. 



FUNGI. The Fungi, or Mushroom family, 

 which are among the lowest forms of vegetation, 

 are extremely diversified in their size, shape, 

 colour, and consistence. The common field- 

 mushroom is one of the best known, and may be 

 cited as a type of the family ; but the puff-ball, 

 truffle, moril, as well as the mould on cheese and 

 stale bread, the mildew on trees, the rust on corn, 

 the substance called dry-rot, and many other 

 minute appearances of a similar nature, are all 

 fungi. In the field-mushroom (Agaricus campes- 

 tris), the plant consists first of some filamentous 

 filaments or spawn, which look like roots, then 

 the stipe or stalk, surmounted by the pileus or 

 cup. 'When the mushroom first appears, the 

 stalk is covered by a thin membrane, called the 

 veil, which unites the cup to the lower part ; but 

 as the mushroom grows, this veil is rent asunder, 

 and it either entirely disappears, or only a small 

 portion of it remains round the stalk, which is 

 called the annulus or ring. Under the cup are 

 gills or lamella?, which are of a dark reddish 

 brown ; and attached to these are the thecae, con- 

 taining the spores.' Many as the moulds, &c. 

 are mere microscopic jointed filaments, or fila- 

 ments surmounted by little ball-like receptacles 

 which contain the sporules, or are mere spherical 

 or filamentous cells, which increase with astonish- 

 ing rapidity, each cell containing a number of 

 undeveloped ones. 



Among the more familiar genera are Agaricus, 

 the mushroom ; Tuber, the truffle ; Morchella, the 

 morel ; Lycoperdon, the puff-ball ; Puccinia, the 

 mildew ; Clavaria, the yellow meadow fungus ; 

 Podisoma, the jelly-looking masses often found on 

 juniper and savin bushes ; and Tubercularia, the 

 small, red, pimple-like fungus found on rotten 

 sticks and trunks of trees. The Fungi are scat- 

 tered everywhere springing from the ground, yet 

 without roots ; under the ground, as the truffle ; 

 on all decaying organic substances ; and even on 

 living animals. What is called yeast is a spheri- 

 cal-celled fungus, having a nucleated develop- 

 ment. 



The plants of this order are not more diversified 

 in form than in properties. Some are wholesome 

 and palatable as the mushroom, moril, truffle, 

 &c. ; others, similar to these in appearance, are 

 deadly poisons. Many of the minuter fungi as 

 moulds, smuts, rusts, &c. are noxious to the 

 112 



human system. Ergot forms a powerful ar 

 dangerous medicine. German tinder is prepared 

 from a species of puff-ball, which, after being 

 dried, is impregnated with nitre. The Siberian 

 fungus (Amantta) is used to induce intoxication. 

 The vinegar plant is one of the most singular 

 forms of fungi ; it is an abnormal state of Penicil- 

 liuin glaucum developed in saccharine fluid, which 

 it has the property of converting into vinegar 

 suited for table use. 



ALGJE. The Algae form a highly interesting 

 family of plants, and are specially important to the 

 physiologist, for it is in these that the phenomena 

 of growth and reproduction are most successfully 

 studied. This order which has been wisely split 

 up into several orders, concerning which our space 

 will not permit of full details embraces the very 

 simplest forms of vegetation, as well as many 

 having a complicated structure. The Algae are 

 not confined to the sea ; many occur in fresh 

 water and on the dry land. They are classified 

 as follows : i. MELANOSPERME^E or FUCACEJE ; 

 brown-coloured sea-weeds. 2. RHODOSPERME/E 

 or CERAMINACE^E ; rose-coloured sea-weeds. 3. 

 CHLOROSPERMEJE or CONFERVACE^E ; green- 

 coloured sea and fresh-water weeds. 4. DlATO 

 MACE^E, Brittleworts ; unicellular, in the form of 

 frustules, usually coated with silica, and contain- 

 ing brown, rarely green, contents. 5. DESMIDIE^E ; 

 unicellular, without silica, containing always green 

 cell-contents. The first contains many of our 

 large species of common sea-weeds ; the second, 

 those beautiful kinds so highly prized for albums ; 

 the third, those green filamentous species so 

 common in stagnant waters, some of which fill up 

 lakes with their interlaced masses of filaments ; 

 the fourth, those minute silicious bodies found in 

 such amazing quantities in all parts of the world ; 

 and the fifth, the analogous non-silicious species, 

 wkich display perhaps the most beautifully sym- 

 metrical forms of the vegetable kingdom. 



Such, according to our limits, is an outline of 

 the Natural System of Botany ; which, though 

 as yet not fully developed, is more interesting 

 and instructive than any artificial method, how- 

 ever elaborate and complete. Undeveloped as we 

 must admit it to be, harsh and difficult as much 

 of its nomenclature is, unnecessarily multiplied 

 and complicated as its orders and tribes really 

 have been, it has still the germs of truth and 

 nature within it, and only requires a cordial and 

 patient elaboration, on the simple principles of its 

 great founder, to render it what it professes to be 

 an exposition of the system upon which Nature 

 has proceeded in the creation of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom. Our brief synopsis can at most but 

 convey a very general notion of vegetable life and 

 relationship, and only introduce the student to the 

 technical phraseology and mode of procedure : for 

 further acquaintance with the subject, we cannot 

 refer to more accessible sources than the excellent 

 works published by Professor Asa Gray, Professor 

 Lindley, and Professor Balfour. 



