SPECIAL MORPHOLOGY: FUNGI. 151 



II. FUNGI. 



83. The spore expands in many directions into an interwoven 

 tissue (rnycelium, stroma, Jlocci, thallus) composed of thread-like, 

 mostly transitory, cells, forming the actual plant, which exhibits 

 no other organs excepting those of propagation. We are wont to 

 make the transitory nature of this part a means of judging of the 

 more strikingly apparent, and frequently more lasting propagating 

 organs of the whole plant. 



A Fungus, as I believe, very seldom consists solely of roundish cells. 

 I cannot regard the true Uredines, &c. ( Coniomycetes) as independent 

 plants. Meyen observed the formation of Uredo Maidis* as an abnormal 

 process of cell-formation in the interior of the cells of the parent plant ; 

 and, in this respect, my own observations on Elymus arenarius coincide 

 with his : on the other hand, the views of Leveille f appear but little 

 entitled to be opposed to the investigations of Meyen, being evidently 

 more superficial and incomplete. An advanced stage of knowledge re- 

 garding the Fungus tribes will no doubt lead to the general conviction 

 that all Fungi consist of a few thread-like cells, forming spores in a 

 similar manner ; and that the classification into groups, tribes, and spe- 

 cies, must depend upon the modification of the process of the formation 

 of spores, upon the aggregation of individual fungus-cells to more com- 

 plex plants, and upon the types of the forms of these compound Fungi. 

 I must, also, regard many other supposed species of plants, as Cceoma, 

 Puccinia, &c., as devoid of individuality, and simply as diseases of plants. 

 On the other hand, such Fungi as are formed in the intercellular pas- 

 sages, and grow from the openings of the stomates, I consider as real 

 parasitical plants (Epiphytes}. The whole tribe of the Leptomitece Ag. 

 do not appertain as independent structures to the Algce, but to the 

 Fungi\) as being species of mould germinating in water. The confu- 

 sion that existed regarding these most imperfect plants was, up to the 

 most recent time, beyond all description, and will not be very speedily 

 removed, since only a few botanists deserving of credit, as Leveille, 

 Montagne, and Berkeley, have devoted themselves to the general study 

 of these groups ; and, in spite of the best observations on the subject, 

 the old errors are for ever revived in systematic works. It may be said 

 of such systematisers, as of the French emigrants, " They forget nothing, 

 and learn nothing." 



We still know but little of the law of development of Fungi. Thus, 

 although the origin of new cells from the spore may have been observed, 

 we yet have no delineation of any one single kind. J. Schmitz has 

 made a very successful introduction, in recent times, to accurate observ- 

 ations of the law of development. (See Beitriige zur Anatomic and Phy- 

 siologic der Schwamme, Linnaea 1843, p. 417.) 



We have certainly recently acquired many very complete series of 



* Wiegmann's Arcbiv, Jahrg. 1837, vol. i. p. 419. 



f Annales des Sc. N., ser. ii. vol. xi. p. 5. 



\ Compare, amongst others, Meyen, in Wiegmann's Archiv, 1838, vol. ii. p. 100. ; 

 and Montague's Skizzen zur Organogr. und Physiol. der Schwamme, Prag. 1844, 

 p. 15. 



Thus we find in Kiitzing's Phycolog. gen, all the species of Leptomitus and Hygro- 

 crocis received as Alga. 



L 4 



