ACOTYLEBON8 MOSSES FUNGI DIAGRAM 18. 211 



from their foliage, and terminating in a knob of very compli- 

 cated construction at their extremity. It at first appears covered 

 with a small hat formed of fibres like a straw roof ; it is pointed 

 and hangs over the sides of the knob. If we remove it, we find 

 beneath it a capsule closed by a cover. It is shaped like a wine 

 glass, and the cover itself has sometimes a kind of small button 

 in the middle. It must be raised in order to see the spores ar- 

 ranged in the little cup. When they are ripe, the hat and cover 

 fall off and allow them to escape. 



FAMILY OF FUNGI. 



We no longer find the ordinary appearance of plants, either 

 in this family, or the two following. Fungi, or at least the 

 most familiar kinds, have a well Jmown appearance, but a num- 

 ber of other plants, such as the moulds, must be arranged in 

 this family, which never present the umbrella-shape of ordinary 

 fungi. 



This umbrella or cap of the fungus, is supported on a stalk of 

 variable thickness. Sometimes the cap has slender pendant 

 plates, called gills, below, and the fungus then belongs to the 

 genus Agaricus, which includes the true mushrooms ; and sometimes 

 the under-surface of the cap exhibits only a multitude of tubes 

 crowded together, and open at the lower extremity, and the fun- 

 gus then belongs to the genus Boletus, or Ceps. But there are 

 many others, such as the morels, the puff-lolls, and the truffles, 

 which have quite a different appearance, 



The stalk of the mushroom often has a kind of collar or ring 

 at about two-thirds of its height. The stalk sometimes grows 

 directly out of the ground, and sometimes out of a kind of 



p 2 



