720 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1743. 



the 5th magnifier, about the size of very small pin-heads: but when he endea- 

 voured, with a fine brush, to wipe ofFany thing, to fix it on a talc, the lightest 

 touch reduced it to water. On this, he had recourse to a thin, but tough fila- 

 ment, which was situated on the stalk or stem of the mushroom, in an exact 

 distance from the head of the mushroom, and the mark, which the earth round 

 about the stem had made. On this filament appeared a fine downy substance, 

 of a lively brown, resembling the down on a moth's wing, but much finer. He 

 could brush off some of this upon white paper, without reducing it to water ; 

 but, not having the new apparatus for opaque objects, there was nothing that 

 appeared bold or sharp enough for him to depend on. He had then recourse 

 to a fine talc in a slider, and brushed ofl^some of this brown dust upon it ; and 

 after applying the 2d magnifier, he was gratified with the first sight of the seed 

 of mushrooms ; for he then discovered a multitude of round, regular, trans- 

 parent bodies, bearing the same appearance as the farina of flowers. He then 

 applied the highest magnifier, through which they apfpeared very bold, of the 

 size of a moderate pin's head. 



Fig. 5, pi. 21, shows a sketch of the mushroom, &c. in its just pro- 

 portion. In which, a is the mushroom ; b, the filament on which the seed 

 was discovered, being probably a wise provision of nature, to prevent the 

 wind's power over such minute bodies as the seeds are ; for, by being placed at 

 an exact distance between the head of the mushroom and the ground, it se- 

 cures the seed before the wind's power can afl^ect it, unless the wind be high ; 

 and, by another easy fall, enables it to lodge itself safely in the ground. This 

 thin filament is that to which the edges of the head of the mushroom adhere, 

 while it is, what is commonly called, a button, and from which it separates by 

 expanding into a flap. 



_ c, the part of the stem under-ground, from which the fibres shoot, on 

 which the little mushrooms, marked d, grow, appearing at first but like a 

 white mouldiness. 



In fig. 6, a, b, are animalcules of the maggot, or fly-kind, found in the head 

 and stems of mushrooms in a decaying state. 



Fig. 7, the seed of the mushroom, as it appears through the first magnifier. 



P. S. After writing the above, Mr. P. met with Sig. Micheli's Nova Genera 

 Plantarum, where he found the observations above made on mushrooms, though 

 entered on without any hint or direction from that, or any other writer, pretty 

 near the same with his. Mr. P. thinks it therefore a piece of justice, due to 

 him, and to the reading and judgment of Mr. Watson, candidly to allow the first 

 discovery of the seeds of mushrooms to that Italian botanist. 



