NUTRITIVE ORGANS OF CELLULAR PLANTS. 321 



plant appears to be reduced to the fructiferous organs ; 

 in Agaricus, Boletus, Sec. the reproductive part only 

 occupies a fixed portion of the plant, and the part which 

 serves for the nutrition is much more visible. The ab- 

 sorption takes place at a certain point which serves for 

 the base : this base sometimes produces radical fibrils, 

 either buried in the earth, or spreading out on the 

 surface ; at other times it is simply fixed to the earth 

 or rotten wood, adhering by imperceptible hairs, or by 

 intimate juxta-position. In several species of rapid 

 growth we can cause coloured water to penetrate the 

 plant, and there we can see that it passes on from the 

 base, and follows the elongated cellules, or intercellular 

 passages. 



When first developed. Fungi proceed from a kind of 

 closed membranous integument which envelopes them, 

 and is called the Veil. They are always round, what- 

 ever form they may afterwards take. Tiieir mode of 

 development has not yet been careftiUy studied; in 

 several, such as Agaricus, the upper part, which is named 

 the Hat, appears to be developed before the lower, 

 which has been compared to a stem, or peduncle ; the 

 reverse seems to take place in Clavaria, which appears 

 to grow from the base upwards. Several Fungi, with 

 horizontal expansions, surround in their development 

 inert bodies which they meet with ; the growing mass is 

 arrested in its development by the slightest obstacle, and 

 reunites beyond it with the greatest facility, since its 

 homogeneity is complete : we also frequently see these 

 plants united together. 



The softer parts of Fungi are very liable to form 

 gaps or spaces by the rupture of the cellules, as in 

 vascular plants ; thus it is that several kinds of Agaricus 

 and Boletus have the pedicel full in their infancy, and 

 hollow at an advanced age. 



VOL. I. Y 



