FUNGI. 117 



preserves, especially when they are viewed with a low mag- 

 nifying power and by reflected light ; for they present 

 themselves as a forest of steins and branches of extremely 

 varied and elegant forms, loaded with fruit of singular 

 delicacy of conformation, all glistening brightly on a dark 

 ground. 



" The universality of the appearance of these simple forms 

 of fungi upon all spots favourable to their development, has 

 given rise to the belief that they are spontaneously produced 

 by decaying substances, but there is no occasion for this 

 mode of accounting for it, since the extraordinary means 

 adopted by nature for the production and diffusion of the 

 germs of these plants adequately suffices to explain the 

 facts of the case. 



"The number of sporules which any one fungus may 

 develope is almost incalculable ; a single individual of the 

 " puff-ball " tribe, has been computed to send forth no fewer 

 than ten millions. And their minuteness is such that they 

 are scattered through the air in the finest possible dust, 

 so that it is difficult to conceive of a place from which they 

 should be excluded." 



Pure water exposed to the air does not afford nourishment 

 to the germs which fall into it till a sufficient number of 

 them shall have been deposited to form a food for those 

 which come after them ; but if we mix with the water any 

 soluble vegetable or animal matter, in a short time the 

 microscope will detect the growth of the germs that are 

 being deposited, for where nourishment is, there only can 

 they be developed. These germs are capable of existing for 

 an indefinite period, either floating in the water, or blown 

 about by the air, and have been detected hundreds of miles 

 from land, the rigging and sails of ships far away from 

 shore are often covered with what sailors suppose to be 

 sand blown from the land, but which are organic substances, 

 either vegetable or animal. According to Humboldt, the 

 Eed Sea has derived its name from the fact that at certain 

 seasons the surface of the water has a reddish appearance, 

 and this (as he says) he was fortunate enough to observe, 

 which colour he found to be due to myriads of red fungi 



