152 MORPHOLOGY. 



observations on several of the more interesting species, but even these are 

 deficient, in a botanical point of view, in that completeness which can 

 alone be obtained by the acquirement of a more perfect knowledge of the 

 origin of the individual cells. I will here especially mention the follow- 

 ing works : 



1. The Ergot (Sphacelia segetum), on which observations have been 

 contributed by Meyen (Miiller's Archiv, 1838, p. 357.); Leveille (Ann. 

 des Sciences Nat. 1837, Dec.) ; Phoebus (Description of German Poison- 

 ous Plants, Part 2, p. 97.); Fee (Flora, 1839, p. 293.) ; Spiering (De 

 Secali cornuto Diss. inaug., Berlin, 1839) ; E. J. Quekett (Ann. of Nat. 

 History, 1839, p. 54.). 



2. The Muscardine (Calcino, Botrytis Bassiana); a Fungus growing 

 upon the Caterpillar of the Silkworm, observed by Bassi (Wiegmann's 

 Archiv, 1837, vol. ii. p. 107.); Balsamo Crivelli (Linnsea, 1836. p. 609.); 

 Audouin and Montagne (Comptes rendus de 1'Acad. 1838, p. 86.). 



84. The development of the organs of propagation varies very 

 much, and has only been perfectly observed in a very few instances. 



The most simple (Hyphomycetes, filamentous Fungi) form, at 

 the end of the thread-like cells, narrower protuberances, in each of 

 which a spore is developed ; this at length separates, having con- 

 sequently a double membrane, the cell of the spore itself and the 

 covering (sporangium) arising from the parent cell, as, for instance, 

 Penicillium, Botrytis. In others the thread-like cells form a sphe- 

 rical swelling at the extremity, from which project a number of 

 such prolongations, each of which contains a spore, while the 

 whole forms a divided sporangium, &s, for instance, Mucor, Penicil- 

 lium ? 



In others (Crasteromycetces, the ventricular Funy'i) the thread- 

 like cells combine into pointed, or non-pointed, variously-shaped 

 sporocarps; in or upon which are spores, of the development of 

 which we know nothing. After the scattering of the spores, 

 the thread-like cells often remain as tender wool (in the Trichi- 

 acece), or as a delicate network (capillitium), as, for instance, in 

 Stemonitis, Cribraria; and the external capsule (uterus, peridiuni) 

 generally composed of fine filamentous cells, is then dissolved, or 

 bursts in different regular ways, as in Arcyria, Geastrum. 



In the most highly developed Fungi (Hymenomycetes, membrane 

 Fungi\ elongated pouch-like cells (probably only the ends of the 

 interwoven filiform fungus-cells, developed into the sporocarps, or 

 cells formed at the ends of these cells) combine by arrangement 

 side by side so closely as to form a membrane (hymeniuni). Some 

 of the cells of tins membrane enlarge considerably (sporangia)) and 

 send out from one to six points at their free extremity, in each of 

 which a spore is developed. The filiform cells of the Fungus then 

 either form round masses, closed in all round (sporocarps), with 

 cavities in their interior, the walls of which are clothed by the 

 hymenium, or they form definitely arranged columns (in Merisma), 

 tubes (in Pofyporus), or lamellae (in Dcedalea, Agaricus), which 

 are clothed by the hymenium (the Hymenomycetes). Of the latter 

 we only know, with any amount of accuracy, the law of develop- 



