FUNGI. 



[ 344 ] 



slips of glass, and keeping them in a warm- 

 ish place under a bell-glass over water, for 

 several days. The filaments will be seen 

 spreading from the spores in all directions, 

 and often advancing to the formation of the 

 fructification. 



The fructification of the simplest Fungi is 

 nothing more than a modification of one or 

 more cells at the end of a filament which 

 rises up from the general body of the myce- 

 lium. In TORULA, one or more globular 

 cells are produced at the ends of filaments 

 composed of elongated, more or less cylin- 

 drical cells (PI. 26. fig. 7) ; these globules 

 drop off, and develop into new mycelia. In 

 Botrytis (figs. 77, 78, 263), the tips of the 



Fig. 263. 



Botrytis (Polyactis) vulgaris. 

 Fertile filaments. Magnified 200 diama. 



fertile filaments are branched and clothed 

 with heaps of spores arising from short pe- 

 dicels. In Penicillium (PI. 26. fig. 15), the 

 filament which rises up, forks at the end, 

 each branch forking again, and so on, until 

 a close tufted pencil of branches is formed, 

 each branch bearing a bead-like row of 

 spores, which drop off separately. Innu- 

 merable modifications of this mode of fruc- 

 tification are met with in the microscopic 

 Fungi ; and the same plan also forms the 

 basis of the fructification of some of the 

 highest forms. 



The way in which the greater complexity 

 arises is by an increased development of the 

 structures supporting the layer of tissue 

 (liymenium) upon which the spores are 

 borne. Thus, in the leathery Fungi grow- 

 ing over damp trunks of trees and dead 

 wood, such as the Hydna, Thelephoree, 

 Hexagonia (figs. 264, 265), the conspicuous 



Hexagonia glabra. 

 Upper surface. Nat. size. 



Fig. 265. 



Hexagonia glabra. Nat. size. 

 Lower surface, with orifices of the hymenium. 



fungous mass (which is all that ordinary 

 observers notice) developed from a floccu- 

 lent mycelium imbedded in the matrix on 

 which the plant grows, is & fruit, composed 

 of dense cellular tissue, and possessing pits, 

 channels, cavities, or the like, the walls of 

 which are clothed with papillose cells, each 

 bearing four free sporanges, which drop off 

 singly to reproduce the plant. The Mush- 

 room, as gathered and brought to table, is 

 merely the ' fruit ' of the Fungus (Agaricus) ; 

 and similar cells bearing four sporules are 

 found clothing the flat sides of the paper- 

 like plates or ' gills' which radiate on the 

 under side of the flat ' cap ' of the Fungus. 

 (See BASIDIOSPOHES.) 



A second kind of fructification is seen in 

 the PHYCOMYCETES, where the upright 

 filament arising from the flocculent myce- 

 lium does not bear free spores as in Peni- 

 cillium, Botrytis, &c., but a comparatively 

 large sac, filled with minute sporules; and 

 these sporidia are scattered by the bursting 

 of the sac. In the Hdvettee, Pezizce, Spa- 

 thulea (fig. 40), Leotia (fig. 41), &c., struc- 

 tures of a fleshy or leathery character, grow- 

 ing upon damp wood &c., we have counter- 

 parts to the Hydna, Thelephorte, &c., since 

 they have fruits arising from a flocculent 



