24O FUNGI. CHAP. V. 



nition. They are also a tribe of plants that may 

 be regarded as the lowest in the vegetable scale, 

 exhibiting a considerable resemblance to the tribe 

 of zoophites, and thus forming the connecting link 

 between the vegetable and animal kingdoms. They 

 have indeed been regarded by some naturalists as 

 being in reality animal productions, formed in the 

 manner of Cor alines ; and by others as being 

 generated from the putrefaction of other vegetable 

 substances, without springing from seeds or gems 

 of their own production. The latter was the opi- 

 nion of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, 

 among the ancients ; and the former was the 

 opinion of Butner, Muller, and Scopoli, among 

 the moderns. But these opinions have been long 

 ago totally exploded, and the proof of the vegetable 

 origin of the Fungi rendered indubitable by the 

 detection of their seeds or gems. The habitats 

 they affect are very various, many of them vegetat- 

 ing only on the surface of the earth, and some of 

 them even buried under it ; others on stumps, and 

 trunks of rotten trees ; others on decayed fruit ; 

 others on damp and wet walls ; and others on 

 animal ordure. 



SECTION I, 



Conservative Organs. 

 t 

 Often The Root. Many of the Fungi are altogether 



wanting. J est i tute Q f a root ^ Qr at j eagt fa e y are destitute of 



