SECT. III. USES. 



turity of their species they die and are converted 

 into a fine earth, which forms a soil for the tiled 

 and leathery lichens. These again decay and 

 moulder into dust in their turn ; and the depth of 

 soil, which is thus augmented, is now capable of 

 nourishing and supporting other tribes of vege- 

 tables. The seeds of the Mosses lodge in it and 

 spring up into plants, augmenting also by their 

 decay the quantity of soil, and preparing it for the 

 support of plants of a more luxuriant growth, so 

 that in the revolution of ages even the surface of 

 the barren rock is covered with a soil capable of 

 supporting the loftiest trees. 



CHAPTER V. 



FUNGI. 



THE Fungi are a tribe of plants whose herbage Descrip- 

 is a frond of a fleshy or pulpy texture, quick in its habitus. 

 growth and fugacious in its duration, and bearing 

 seeds or gems in an appropriate and exposed mem- 

 brane, or containing them interspersed throughout 

 its mass. But this rule is not without its excep- 

 tions; for many of the Fungi are converted, during 

 the process of vegetation, or rather when their ve- 

 getation is over, into a tough, leathery, and even 

 woody substance ; which gives them a permanency 

 beyond that of their congeners, and a trait of 

 character that is not included in the above defi- 



