MUSHROOMS. -i()J 



plant ; and concludes that what others haw 

 taken for the blossoms, are only the organs 

 of fructification, as he deems the whole 

 mushroom to be but one flower : for though 

 all plants vary in their shape and number of 

 leaves or stalks, &c, yet the blossoms of 

 each species are always regularly the same, 

 even in the most minute parts, unless by 

 some accident they become imperfect ; flower 

 buds are always observed to come out of the 

 earth, or out of the stalks of plants, closed 

 with a thin film, or by the petals folding so 

 closely and exactly over each other that the 

 moist air is perfectly excluded, until the 

 stigma and stamina have acquired their 

 proper size, when the petals or blossoms un- 

 fold themselves, that the pollen may be ri- 

 pened by the sun or air, and the impregna- 

 tion may take place ; after which the petals 

 fall off, or the flower gradually decays. 



The mushroom always comes out of the 

 earth as a bud, which closely protects the 

 interior with a thin skin (the veil), until it 

 has reached its size and the state proper for 

 fructification ; when it expands precisely in 

 the same manner as other flowers, the interior 

 of which uniformly exhibits the same regular 

 arrangement of laminae, or gills, which seem 



