250 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



immersed in cavities or upon surfaces which secrete a 

 particular mucus ; the sporangia, when they are not 

 imbedded in mucus, frequently adhere to divided fila- 

 ments. 



As to the fecundating organs, there is still the great- 

 est doubt upon their existence. Bulliard has remarked 

 that in some species of Sphccria there exists, indepen- 

 dently of the sporangia of which we have spoken, a white 

 fugaceous inflorescence, which he supposes analogous to 

 pollen. Hedwig has believed that he has perceived, 

 both in the cells of Sphcsria and upon the margin of the 

 cap of Jgaricus, kinds of bodies filled with pulverulent 

 matter, and which he thinks are the male organs. But 

 neither of these assertions is founded upon observations 

 sufficiently positive, or extended to a sufficient number 

 of species, for it to be possible to repose any confidence 

 in them. 



It may be said that the fecundating fluid is inclosed 

 with the spores in the sporangia, or around them in the 

 cavities which contain them. This may be so ; but those 

 who affirm it do not know more about it than those who 

 deny it. It would be premature, then, to give the least 

 importance to theories which are not founded upon any 

 positive facts. Until these are well known, if ever they 

 can be, we shall call spores or gongyles the fecundated 

 or unfecundated corpuscules, which we suppose, from 

 analogy, to reproduce these plants. 



The practical multiplication of the mushroom ( Aga- 

 ricus campestris ) , which is performed by means of the 

 remains of old layers, or of what gardeners call mush- 

 room spawn, does not serve to elucidate the theory of 

 the reproduction of these plants ; in fact, in this rude 

 operation, they heap up without any order both the 

 remains of the roots as well as the caps of old mush- 

 rooms, and we may as well believe that reproduction 



