SOME COMMON BRITISH FUNGI 



235 



Nigricans gives entire colouring of deep 

 velvety black. 



The order of the Agaricinecc can show 

 equally glowing colours, and of these I 

 would mention two specimens that are 

 frequently found together amongst dead 

 leaves, etc., in our woods, viz., Stropharia 

 .Eritginosus, with turquoise blue cap 

 and pale brown gills, and Agaricus 

 Violarius. showing a crimson brown cap, 

 salmon-coloured gills, ami white stem. 



Quite as wonderfully varied as the 

 colouring is the exterior form of the 

 Fungi. For here the range extends from 

 the great Horse Mushroom of the Agari- 

 cinea. or the coarse saddle-shaped forms 

 of Polyporus Sqiiainosus, down to the most 

 fragile and minute species such as Maras- 

 mius Hudsoni, that lives on dead holly 

 leaves. It measures about one inch in 

 height, and curiously produces in miniature 

 the suggestion of the holly's spines both 

 on cap and stem. AgaricinecB Setosus will 

 erect a crowd of delicate white pin-like 

 forms only half an inch high on a single 

 beech leaf. When we consider that 

 every form of rust and mould, whether 

 on the wheat-ears in our fields, or asso- 

 ciated with food in our larders, is essentially 

 a variation on the Fungus principle, it 

 will be seen how large a family this is in 

 its root-stock. 



The development of species, or extension 

 from any specialised manifestation, seems 

 always to be the result of its capacity for 

 adaptation to circumstance. The primi- 

 tive spore became an extended and 

 diversified manifestation according to the 

 particular law of its circumstance. The 

 original idea, persisting by right of its 

 inherent life-power, is, nevertheless, con- 

 formed by the changed environment, and 

 new variations of form, colouring, and 

 structure are the consequence. Right 

 at the heart of every expression of Nature 

 there is always this great law at work — 

 that of adaptation to circumstance. In 

 short, to be able to conform to that is 

 to be ; to fail, is not to be. 



There is no form of the Fungus order 

 of plants, or, indeed, of any other plant 

 or organism, but expresses this truth in 

 itself very distinctly. 



The Fungi belong to a very marked 

 division of the order of plants. It is, 

 indeed, so marked that some people 



scarcely think of the familiar Toadstool 

 or Mushroom as plants at all. There is 

 no point in all Natural History more 

 interesting than the one where is dis- 

 covered the emergence of one tj-pe-form 

 from another — in other words, the link 

 showing a vast relationship. 



Deep down in the complexity of 

 specialised form is also the warrant of 

 relationship to the family-tree of the 

 universal. Associated with that division 

 of plants called Cryptogams, the Fungi 

 are conspicuously separated by the 

 absence of chloro{)h3'll, or green colour- 

 ing matter, in their constitution. This 

 characteristic separates them from other 

 plants, since it determines and limits their 

 existence — they must feed upon organic 

 matter, and not inorganic. The in- 

 organic properties of clay, lime, etc., must 

 have been first assimilated by another 

 organism and transformed into chemical 

 constituents nearer to the nature of the 

 Fungus itself. 



The two great divisions of the tribe are 

 respectively: i. Saprophytes, those that 

 live on dead organic substances ; 2, 

 Parasites, those that live on living plants 

 and animals. The fact of this sub- 

 division shows at once what great power 

 of adaptation to circumstance the Fungi 

 principle possessed. Some regard them 

 as descended from the Algcs, the primitive 

 cellular plants that have been divided 

 into three groups: i, Algae; 2, Fungi; 

 3, Lichens. 



It is stated that these last became 

 differentiated at a later period than the 

 Fungi, being met with in fossil state in 

 Tertiary rock, and having persisted 

 ever since. 



Two main groups divide the Fungus 

 family: i, Ascomycetes ; 2, Basidiomy- 

 cetes. 



The first is the elder in point of time, 

 showing in the organisation a closer 

 reseml)lance to the Alg(d. the old universal 

 ancestor. It is from this ancient order of 

 ihe Ascomycetes that the si)ecies shown in 

 the illustration on page 241 is descendetl. 

 The other seven specimens illustrated all 

 belong to the group of the Basidiomycetes. 

 Since the determination of species dcjicntls 

 upon the structural formation, a little 

 should now be said ujion this imiH)rtant 

 matter. 



