XIIL] ABOUT FUNGI. 187 



piece, and spread it out flat, it would cover an im- 

 mense surface, as compared with the size of the 

 pileus, for it is plaited or folded like a lady's fan 

 over the whole of the gill-plates, or lamellae, of the 

 fungus." * 



It is upon the characters of the spore-bearing sur- 

 faces that the fungologist relies for guidance in classi- 

 fication. Upon these characters he classes all fungi 

 in two great primary divisions, in the first of which 

 (SrORIFERA) the spores are naked, i.e., they are not 

 enveloped in an ascus ; in the second division (SPORI- 

 DIFERA) the spores are enclosed in asci, as in Mucor. 

 Fig. 141 shows the manner in which these 

 spores are borne in Agarics. S is the 

 spores which are borne in fours upon a 

 projection (B, the basidiiini] from the giil- 

 plate. On the variations in these spore- 

 bearing organs the orders and genera are 

 based ; but it is impossible, in the limits of 

 a chapter, to enter fully into the subject 

 of classification, neither does such subject FIG. 141. 

 come within the scope of a popular book. 

 Those of our readers who wish to become fungologists 

 we would refer to the works of the Rev. M. J. Berke- 

 ley, M.A., F.L.S., and Dr. M. C. Cooke, M.A. 



Among this group of flowerless plants are to be 

 found some of the most remarkable vegetable growths, 

 and, without exaggeration, we may add, some of the 

 most beautiful. No more delicately beautiful sight 

 can be found among higher plants than a group of 

 minute moulds under the microscope. It is a veri- 



* Dr. M. C. Cooke. 



