OF THE FUNGI. 35 



three years thereafter, I again visited the spot, and saw 

 that these stumps, no longer wet, but damp, had been en- 

 tirely disintegrated by the dry rot, and that they crumbled 

 in the handling. In the handful of dust which I picked up, 

 I found innumerable spores of what I supposed to be 

 Polyporus Destructor, and Merulius Vastator, cryptoga- 

 mous plants, whose active existence had been bought at the 

 expense of the old stumps. In a moment I conceived that, 

 perhaps, the miasm, so much dreaded in that place, might 

 be, directly or indirectly, the product of these urgers on 

 of a more rapid decomposition. It was a loose thought at 

 the time; but it gave me a disposition to collect the phe- 

 nomena which might prove or disprove the agency in the 

 generation of malaria, of living, not of dead plants. 



A part of my collection I now offer you. In doing so, 

 I shall present only the affirmative side of the question, 

 believing that no one else is likely immediately to sustain 

 so revolutionary an opinion, whilst professional emulation, 

 habitual prejudice, and even love of truth, will subject it 

 to a sufficiently rigorous opposition. You have, therefore, 

 due notice of the guarded manner in which you are to re- 

 ceive my ex parte observations, a notice which I cheer- 

 fully give, for I have much confidence in the force of my 

 subject, and do not love my theory well enough to wish 

 its establishment at the expense of truth or reason. Take 

 it, then, for what I may show to be its worth. 



Just on the line which faintly marks the division be- 

 tween the animal and vegetable kingdoms, lie the lichens, 

 the algse and the fungi. These cryptogamous plants are 

 so closely allied to each other, as to be indistinctly sepa- 

 rated by naturalists; some of whom include under one 

 division, species which are found differently disposed of 

 by other phytologists. Lmdley, following the great con- 



