1898.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 175 



Fungi. 



BY J. G. WALLER, PREST., QUEKETT CLUB, 



Having obtained samples of sand from the lightships 

 in the German Ocean, immediately off the English 

 Coast, I was led intooneof the most interesting subjects 

 that ever I was engaged with the microscope. It opened 

 up an entirely new field. 



The Fungi comprise a very large family. In many 

 cases they are what Linnaeus called "Servi," going be- 

 fore to prepare the way or coming after to clear the way 

 as in the case of mould. These apparently simple forms 

 produce the potato disease, the vine pest, fungus foot of 

 India. Yet we could scarcely expect to find Fungi exca- 

 vating as they do small particles of calcareous sand and 

 at two fathoms depth. But Prof. P. M. Duncan, found 

 a similar deposit as far back as the Siberian age — myriad's 

 of ages ago. Still operating in our own seas is the same 

 eternal la\v. 



There is however some uncertainty as to whether these 

 organisms are algge or fungi. Long ago Fries, a Swede, 

 regarded them as interchangeable, and that what in 

 water were Algae became Fungi or Lichens in air. 

 Kollicker called them Fungi but Dr. M. C. Cooke, 

 moulds. But if we entertain evolution or devolution in 

 these classes we shall not too readily make species in 

 lower organisms. This practice has too often taken plaije. 

 "Mere mycelia have been described as perfect plants, 

 mistakes have been made in important points of structure, 

 and productions of an undoubted fungoid nature have 

 been referred to algse though agreeing with them 

 neither in habit nor physiology, while the commonest 

 mould's have received new names, and several conditions 

 of the same species have been registered aa autonomous 

 productions." — Berkeley. 



