42 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1744. 



vided into lamellae, or what we call in England gills ; but has instead a great 

 many papillae ; and being of a greenish yellow colour. But what is raised in 

 England, is the fungus campestris albus superne, inferne rubens, of John Bauhin, 

 which differs toto coelo from the former, and which Dr. Dillenius enumerates 

 among the species of boletus, whereas the latter is a species of amanita. 



Mr. W. differs from this gentleman also in regard to the use of the ring, 

 which surrounds the stalk of this mushroom. He imagines it placed there, by 

 the wise Author of Nature, to break the fall of the seeds when ripe ; by which 

 those light bodies may be preserved from the fury of the winds, in order to the 

 abundant propagation of their species. Mr. W. has reason to believe, that those 

 seeds, which fall on this ring, fall there by accident ; and adhere there only from 

 the viscocity by which they are entangled. But before examining this matter, 

 Mr. W. makes a few observations on the economy of this plant. The fungi, 

 then, are of that class of vegetables, which are ranged, by that most skilful bo- 

 tanist Linneus, under the appellation of cryptogamia, or those which perform 

 their fructification in secret. Under this head we find the fig-tree, all the spe- 

 cies of fern, mosses, mushrooms, and a few others, whose flowering and seeding 

 are observed with more difficulty, than in those we usually call the more perfect 

 plants. In some of this class, the fructification, notwithstanding the great as- 

 sistance furnished to the modem botanists by microscopes, which the ancient 

 were wholly destitute of, remains yet undiscovered.* This plant then being of 

 this class, almost all those whose stems are thick and fleshy, as well as their um- 

 bels, have a ring on their stem ; from which, when the plant is young, and 

 until it arrives at a flowering state, there arises a membrane, which connects the 

 rim of the umbel to the stem, and preserves the under part of the plant in this 

 state : but when this is over, the umbel, which before was almost of an hemi- 

 spherical figure, growing larger, and the membrane not giving way, is loosened 

 from the rim of the umbel, and adheres only to the stem. Soon after this state, 

 the seeds ripen, and the umbel losing its former figure, commences almost a 

 plane ; and the plant in this state is sold in our markets, by the name of flaps. 

 Now, when the umbel is of this figure, the seeds, being perfectly ripe, must 

 fall naturally on the whole space the umbel covers, which Micheli observed by 

 placing , leaves of trees under them ; and on the ring, as well as any other part ; 

 though probably not more. As for those species of fungi whose stems are thin 

 and whose umbels are soft, and more ductile, they need not, nor have they, 

 this ring or membrane ; because, in their tender state, the rims of their umbels 

 clap themselves quite close to the stalk, in the form of a contracted umbrella ; 

 and expand as the others do, when their seeds are ripe: yet the- species of this 

 tribe are as numerous as the former. 



• Since this was written much new light has been thrown on the fructification of pknts belonging 

 to the T'""'*^" cryptogamia class, by the celebrated Hedwig. 



