SECT. II. REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 245 



ceive how very difficult it must be to decide upon 

 their true character. 



Bulliard does not pretend to have discovered, 

 and does not think it necessary that there should 

 exist in the Fungi, organs exactly corresponding 

 to the stamens and pistils of conspicuous flowers ; 

 but only organs analogous to them, and capable of 

 performing similar functions; the grounds of which 

 opinion he has illustrated in his Theory of the 

 Fructification of the Fungi, and rendered at least 

 as tenable as any that have been taken up against 

 him. Gaertner is also of opinion that the Fungi 

 do not in any case produce perfect seeds, but are 

 propagated like the Fuci, by that peculiar species of 

 gem which he denominates the Gongylus. 



But however this may be, there can be no doubt 

 that the Fungi^ as well as the foregoing tribes of 

 imperfect plants, do produce either seeds or gems, 

 by which the species is propagated ; and which 

 are lodged either in an appropriate and conspicuous 

 receptacle, or dispersed irregularly throughout the 

 body of the frond. 



In the genus Agaricus, and others of similar Seeds, 

 organization, this receptacle is the gills, in which, 

 if inspected with a good microscope about the 

 time the curtain bursts, there may be observed by 

 means of raising up a small portion of the flat 

 surface, a number of small and minute granules 

 imbedded in their substance. These granules are 

 the seeds or gems which in a ripened state are dis- 



