182 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1675. 



as it fares with people in the time of the plague in one and the same house. I 

 further observed, that stones of a soft and open grain, as well as those of a hard 

 and polished superficies, were affected alike. It is certain, that the whole body 

 of the turpentine of the cedar-wood was carried forth into the air, and floating 

 therein was again condensed into its own proper form upon these stones. 

 This makes it more than probable, that odoriferous bodies emit and spend 

 their very substance. Thus camphire is said, if not well secured, totally to 

 flyaway. Again, it is hence evident, that there is great difference between 

 the distillation of vegetable juices, and the emission of effluviums, or this 

 natural distillation ; that really separating and dividing the substance into 

 diff'erent parts; but this carrying out the whole intirely and unaltered in its 

 nature. 



VI. Of the Floiver and Seed of Mushrooms. 



The general and received opinion of botanists, concerning mushrooms, is that 

 which Caspar Bauhinus, in his Pinax, expresses in these few words, viz. " Fungi 

 neque plantae, neque radices, neque flores ; ' neque semina sunt ; sed nihil aliud 

 qu^m terrae, arborum, lignorum putridorum, aliarumque, putrilaginum humidi- 

 tates superfluas." I am of opinion, that they are plants of their own kind, and 

 have more than a chance original. We will instance in that species, called Fun- 

 gus porosus crassus magnus I. B. The texture of the gills is like a paper pricked 

 full of pin-holes. In August this is very frequent under hedges, and in the 

 middle of the moors in many places of this country. It seems to me, and no 

 doubt it will to any person that shall well examine it, that the gills of this mush- 

 room are the very flower and seed of this plant. * When it is ripe, the gills here 

 are easily separable from the rest of the head : each seed is distinct from other, 

 and has its impression in the head of the mushroom, just as the seeds of an 

 artichoke has in the bottom of it. The larger end of the seed is full and round, 

 and they are disposed in a spiral order, just as those of the artichoke. The like 

 we think of all other mushrooms, however differently figured. 



And if it shall happen, when sown, that these will not produce their kind, 

 but be steril ; it is no strange thing among plants, there being whole genuses of 

 plants that come up, and flower, and seed, and yet their seed was never known 

 to produce plants of their kind, being naturally steril, and a volatile dust, as all 

 the orchides or bee-flowers. It may be further observed concerning this mush- 

 room, that when fresh gathered, it is of a buff colour on both sides ; and yet, 



* This conjecture respecting the existence of the seeds of the fungi or mushrooms in their gills, 

 has been .verified by the late beautiful discoveries of Hedwig. 



