MUSHROOM. 363 



sentiments of the wisdom displayed in cre- 

 ation. 



This class of plants, which the botanists 

 rank as the lowest order of vegetables, has 

 been supposed to assimilate more closely 

 to the animal creation than any other class 

 of the vegetable world. 



The ingenious authoress of Sketches of the 

 Physiology of Vegetable Life, observes, "The 

 Fungi resemble animals in some of their 

 species, in growing vigorously without light ; 

 as is shewn by those found in dark cellars, 

 and by the truffle, which lives and vegetates 

 under ground." She adds, " The animal fla- 

 vour of the esculent mushroom, and the 

 odour of any kind of Fungus, when burned, 

 resembling that of burning feathers, added 

 to the putrefaction to which the whole tribe 

 are subject, and the scent emitted by them 

 in that state, do not exclude them from the 

 vegetable kind, but afford additional analo- 

 gical evidence of the affinity between the 

 two kingdoms." 



We have still much to learn on the subject 

 of these singular species of plants, which, 

 although they bear so close an analogy to 

 animal life, are evidently vegetables, and pro- 

 duce seed, by which they have been propa- 



