500 CRYPTOGAMOTTS OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



Each ascus, or sac, contains a few spores, which divide into two, 

 but generally remain coherent. The vegetation of some Lichens 

 rises info a kind of axis, as in the Cladonia coccinea, which 

 abounds on old logs (Fig. 1179); or in Cladonia rangiferina, the 

 Reindeer Moss ; also in Usnea, where it forms long, gray tufts, 

 hanging from the boughs of old trees in our Northern forests. 



944. Ord, Fungi (Mushrooms, Moulds, fyc.) are parasitic (137) 

 Flowerless plants, either in a strict sense, as living upon and draw- 

 ing their nourishment from living, though more commonly lan- 

 guishing, plants and animals, or else as appropriating the organized 

 matter of dead and decaying animal and vegetable bodies. Hence 

 they fulfil an office in the economy of creation analogous to that 

 of the infusory animalcules. Those Fungi which produce Rust, 

 Smut, Mildew, &c., are of the first kind ; those which produce 

 Dry-rot, &c., hold a somewhat intermediate place ; and Mush- 

 rooms, Puff-balls, &c., are examples of the second. Fungi are 

 consequently not only destitute of any thing like foliage, but also 

 of the green matter, or chlorophyll, which appears to be essential 

 to the formation of organic out of inorganic matter (87, 135, 344). 

 A full account of the diversified modifications of structure that 

 Fungi display, and of the remarkable points in their economy, 

 would require a volume. We will notice three sorts only, which 

 may represent the highest, and nearly the lowest, forms of this 

 vast order or class of plants. They all begin (in germination or 

 by offsets) with the production of copious filamentous threads, or 

 series of attenuated cells, appearing like the roots of the fungus 

 that arises from them (Fig. 1179, 1181), and to a certain extent 

 performing the functions of roots : this is called the mycelium, and 

 is the true vegetation of Fungi. The subsequent developments 

 properly belong to the fructification, or are analogous to tubers, 

 rhizomas, &c. In one part of the order, the masses that arise, of 

 various definite shapes, and often attaining a large size, contain in 

 their interior a multitude of asci (Fig. 1180), inclosing simple or 

 double sporules, just as in Lichens. The esculent Morel has this 

 kind of fructification ; as well as the less conspicuous Sphreria 

 (Fig. 1179), which is in other respects of a lower grade. The 

 Agarics, like the Edible Mushroom (Fig. 1181), present a differ- 

 ent type. Rounded tubercles appear on the mycelium ; some of 

 these rapidly enlarge, burst an outer covering which is left at the 

 base (the volva, or wrapper), and protrude a thick stalk (stipes), 



