CRYPTOGAMIA. 379 



painter and the botanist has long been desired, re- 

 lative to the genus in question, which is now sup- 

 plied by the Hist or la Fucorum of the writer last 

 mentioned, and his friend Mr. W. J. Hooker. 



5. Fungi. Mushrooms. These cannot properly be 

 said to have any herbage. Their substance is fleshy, 

 generally of quick growth and short duration, dif- 

 fering in firmness, from a watery pulp to a leathery 

 or even woody texture. By some naturalists they 

 have been thought of an animal nature, chiefly be- 

 cause of their foetid scent in decay, and because 

 little white bodies like eggs are found in them at 

 that period. But these are truly the eggs of flies, 

 laid there by the parent' insect, and destined to pro- 

 dude a brood of maggots, to feed on the decaying 

 fungus ) as on a dead carcase. Ellis's beautiful 

 discoveries, relative to corals and their inhabiting 

 polypes, led to the strange analogical hypothesis 

 that these insects formed the fungus, which Mun- 

 chausen and others have asserted. Some have 

 thought fungi were composed of the sap of cor- 

 rupted wood, transmuted into a new sort of being ; 

 an idea as unphilosophical as the former, and un- 

 supported by any semblance of truth. 



Dryander, SchasfFer and Hedwig have, on much 

 better grounds, asserted their vegetable nature, de- 

 tected their seeds, and in many cases explained their 

 parts of fructification. In fact, they propagate their 



