22 



CHAPTER II. 



NATURE OF FUNGI. 



Having given some general notions of the objects of which 

 it is proposed to render an account in this vokime, I proceed 

 to such considerations as to their nature^ mode of growth, 

 propagation, uses, properties, distribution, and structure, as 

 may come within the scope of an essentially popular treatise, 

 and so far as they can be explained without entering into 

 abstruse discussions, which require a considerable portion of 

 previous knowledge. 



The most prominent question which arises naturally may 

 be stated as follows : — Are these productions members of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom equally with the leaf-bearing plants with 

 which we are all so familiar ; are the species as truly species 

 as those which we meet with amongst them, or are Fungi 

 mere creatures of accident, without any stability of character, 

 and incapable of any rational arrangement ? 



Taking Fungi as a whole, there is not a shadow of doubt 

 as to their being true vegetables. Discussions, indeed, once 

 took place in consequence of erroneous observations respect- 

 ing some supposed spontaneous motion in their reproduc- 

 tive bodies, as seen under the microscope, as to whether they 

 might not be built up by little animals after the fashion 



