m 



CLASSIFICATION 



A WORK of this kind could not be considered complete without 

 some account of the systematic arrangement or classification 

 which these plants receive at the hands of botanists, It would 

 hardly avail to enter too minutely into details, yet sufficient 

 should be attempted to enable the reader to comprehend the 

 value and relations of the different groups into which fungi are 

 divided. The arrangement generally adopted is based upon 

 the " Systema Mycologicum " of Fries, as modified to meet the 

 requirements of more recent microscopical researches by Berkeley 

 in his " Introduction,"* and adopted in Lindley's "Vegetable 

 Kingdom." Another arrangement was proposed by Professor 

 de Bary,^ but it has never met with general acceptance. 



In the arrangement to which we have alluded, all fungi are 

 divided into two primary sections, having reference to the mode 

 in which the fructification is produced. In one section, the 

 spores (which occupy nearly the same position, and perform 

 similar functions, to the seeds of higher plants) are naked ; that 

 is, they are produced on spicules, and are not enclosed in cysts 

 or capsules. This section is called SPOEIFERA, or spore-bearing, 

 because, by general consent, the term spore is limited in fungi 

 to such germ-cells as are not produced in cysts. The second 

 section is termed SPOEIDIIFERA, or sporidia-bearing, because in 

 like manner the term sporidia is limited to such germ-cells as 



* Rev. M. J. Berkeley, "Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany" (1857), Lon- 

 don, pp. 235 to 372. 



t De Bary, in " Streinz Nomenclator Fungorum," p. 722. 



