ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MATTER COMPARED. 89 



ment of the plant consists in what we here call 

 a filamentous matter, which radiates from the 

 centre formed by the spore, or seeds, and that 

 all the cellular spheroidal appearances are 

 subsequently developed, more especially with a 

 view to the dispersion of the species — we say 

 dispersion, not multiplication, because it is 

 certain that the filamentous matter alone is 

 quite as capable of multiplying a fungus as the 

 cellular or spheroidal." As an example in 

 point, we may instance the common mushroom, 

 (Argaricns campestris,) the filamentous matter 

 of which is commonly sold, and used by gar- 

 deners, under the name of spawn, for the 

 artificial multiplication of the species in 

 gardens, etc. The spawn of the mushroom is 

 its stem ; the mushroom itself is the fructifica- 

 tion of the plant. Here we revert to a point 

 relative to the nature of these singular forms of 

 vegetable organization, (a point to which we 

 have already adverted,) namely, this, that 

 fungi, unlike other plants, instead of purifying 

 the air by robbing it of its carbonic acid and 

 restoring an equivalent of oxygen, vitiate it by 

 exhaling carbonic acid and absorbing oxygen. 

 This is a singular fact, and goes far to break 

 down the line of demarcation between plants 

 and animals. 



There are broad lines of distinction be- 

 tween the great outstanding forms of animal 

 and vegetable life. When we come, however, 

 to those more recondite forms, to those, for 

 instance, which we, perhaps erroneously, call 



