FUNGI. 



691 



loaded with fruit of singular delicacy of conformation, all glistening .brightly 

 on a dark ground. 



" The universality of the appearance of these simple forms of fungi 

 upon all spots favourable to their development, has given rise to the belief 

 that they are spontaneously produced by decaying substances, but there is 

 no occasion for this mode of accounting for it, since the extraordinary means 

 adopted by nature for the production and diffusion of the germs of these 

 plants adequately suffices to explain the facts of the case. 



" The number of sporules which any one fungus may develop is almost 

 incalculable ; a single individual of the " puff-ball " tribe has been computed 

 to send forth no fewer than ten millions. And their minuteness is such that 

 they are scattered through the air in the finest possible dust, so that it is 

 difficult to conceive of a place from which they should be excluded." 



Pure water exposed to the air does not afford nourishment to the 

 germs which fall into it, till a sufficient number of them shall have been 

 deposited to form a food for 

 those which come after them; 

 but if we mix with the water 

 any soluble vegetable or 

 animal matter, in a short 

 time the microscope will de- 

 tect the growth of the germs 

 that are being deposited, for 

 where nourishment is, there 

 only can they be developed. 

 These germs are capable of 

 existing for an indefinite 

 period, either floating in the 

 water, or blown about by the 

 air, and have been detected 

 hundreds of miles from land ; the rigging and sails of ships far away from 

 shore are often covered with what sailors suppose to be sand blown from 

 the land, but which are organic substances, either 

 vegetable or animal. According to Humboldt, the 

 Red Sea has derived its name from the fact that at 

 certain seasons the surface of the water has a reddish 

 appearance, and this (as he says) he was fortunate 

 enough to observe, which colour he found to be due to 

 myriads of red fungi, which had formed on the surface. The seeds of some 

 plants are furnished with minute wings or plumes, which cause them to be 

 borne on the air or floated on the water (fig. 824), to fertilise some barren 

 spbt, perhaps a coral reef, which has at length reached the surface of the 

 water, and which ascends no higher, for the little creatures which built it are 

 aquatic, and cannot live exposed to the air ; this coral reef now becomes a 

 receptacle for seaweed and fungi, which float on the surface .of the ocean. 



Fig. 823. Eatable uv.ishroom [Afariciu cainfestris). 



rig. 82^. Seeds with pappi. 



