142 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



PART II. 



plants, augmenting also by their decay the quantity of soil, and preparing it for the sup- 

 port of plants of a more luxuriant growth, so that in the revolution of ages even the sur 

 face of the barren rock is covered with a soil capable of supporting the loftiest trees. 



SUBSECT. 5. Fungi. 



603. The fungi are a tribe of plants whose herbage is a frond of ajteshy or pulpy texture, 

 quick in its growth, and fugacious in its duration, and bearing seeds or gems in an appro- 

 priate and exposed membrane, or containing them interspersed throughout its mass. But 

 this rule is not without its exceptions ; for many of the fungi are converted, during the 

 process of vegetation, or rather when their vegetation is over, into a tough, leathery, and 

 even woody substance, which gives them a permanency beyond that of their congeners, 

 and a trait of character that is not included in the above definition. They are also a tribe 

 of plants that may be regarded as 



the lowest in the vegetable scale, 

 exhibiting a considerable resem- 

 blance to the tribe of zoophites, and 

 thus forming the connecting link 

 between the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms. The habitations they 

 affect are very various, many of them 

 vegetating only on the surface of the 

 earth ( t fig. 46. a), and some of them 

 even buried under it ; others on 

 stumps and trunks of rotten trees'(6); 

 others on decayed fruit ; others on 

 damp and wet walls ; and others on 

 animal ordure. 



Conservative organs. Many of the fungi are altogether destitute of any conspicuous root, being attached 

 to some appropriate basis of support merely by means of a large and flattened surface. The frond is often 

 merely a thin, flat, and leathery sort of substance, adhering to a basis of support by means of the whole of 

 its under-surface, as in the boleti. In others it is globular and sitting, as in lycoperdon ; and in others, it 

 is bell-shaped and sitting, as in nidularia. 



Reproductive organs. In fungi furnished with gills and a curtain, if the inner surface of the curtain is 

 carefully examined with a good magnifier, before the time of its natural detachment from the stipe or 

 pileus, there will be found adhering to it a number of fine and delicate threads supporting small globules ; 

 and in such as have no curtain the same sort of substances may be found adhering to the edge of the 

 pileus. These Hedwig regards as stamens. If the gills are next examined in the same manner and about 

 the same time, there will be found sitting on their edge or surface a multitude of small, tender, and cylin- 

 drical substances, some of which are surmounted with a small globule, and others not. These he regards 

 as being probably the styles and summits. Similar substances may be detected on the other genera of 

 fungi also. But from the extreme minuteness of their parts, and from their strong similitude to the down 

 with which the finer organs of vegetables are generally covered, it is easy to perceive how very difficult it 

 must be to decide upon their true character. 



604. Uses of the fungi- The powder of the lycoperdons is said to be an excellent 

 stvptic ; and is remarkable also for its property of strongly repelling moisture. If a basin 

 is filled with water, and a little of the powder strewed upon the surface so as to cover it 

 thinly, the hand may be plunged into it and thrust down to the bottom without being 

 wetted with a single drop of water. Several of the boleti, when dried, afford a very use- 

 ful tinder ; and several of the agarics and tubers are used as articles of food, or as ingre- 

 dients in the preparation of seasoning. The truffle is much esteemed for the rich and 

 delicate flavor which it imparts to soups and sauces ; and the mushroom for its esculent 

 property, and utility in the preparation of ketchup. 



CHAP. VI. 

 Vegetable Anatomy) or the internal Structure of Plants. 



605. The organs of plants discoverable by external examination, are themselves reducible 

 to component organs, which are again resolvable into constituent and primary organs. 

 These are called the decomposite, the composite, and the elementary. 



SECT. I. Decomposite Organs. 



606. The decomposite organs constitute the vegetable individual, and are distinguishable 

 by external examination ; to the dissection of which we will now proceed, taking them in 

 the retrograde order of the seed, pericarp, flower, leaf, gem, and caudex, or branch, stem, 

 and root, with their decomposite appendages. 



607. The seed. The mass of the seed consists of two principal parts, distinguishable without much difficulty; 

 namely, the integuments and nucleus, or embryo and its envelopes. The integuments proper to the seed 



