NATURE OF FUNGI. 23 



of corals; but it is now perfectly certain that such notions 

 were ill-founded, and that these bodies agree in the main 

 principles of growth and structure with other vegctaljles. In 

 several species the complete progress from the minute spore 

 to the perfect plant has been traced step by step, till the 

 circle has been complete, and the new spore ready again for 

 reproduction. In one group alone, as stated above (p. 13), 

 doubts exist as to the real nature of the objects it contains, 

 because the general mass does not usually consist of real fila- 

 ments or cells, and the substance of which they are composed 

 is of a different chemical nature from that which forms the 

 framework of all known vegetables."^ Ultimately, however, 

 true cells are always produced, and in one genus spiral vessels ; 

 and both Mr. Broome and myself have in certain genera ob- 

 served distinct sacs growing from the fundamental framework 

 and not from the mere slimy mass which it encloses, in which 

 the spores are developed, and sometimes from a specifie point, 

 as in the higher Fungi (Plate 1, fig. 6), the free portion of the 

 spore being rough with granules, while the inner portion, from 

 its contact with other spores, is smooth.f Besides, in Lijco- 

 gala terrestris there is as distinct a fibrillose spawn penetra- 

 ting the soil as in any Lycoperdon (see Corda, fasc. 6, t. 2, 

 fig. 37; and text, p. 15). Fries, moreover, in a letter received 

 while writing this, calls my attention to the early stage of 

 the fructiferous cells in the genus Polysaccum, and to tlie 

 amorphous, unctuous, semiliquid state of young Polyporas 

 Schweinitzii, resembling closely that of an infant JEthalium. 

 Though, however, I have myself little doubt as to these pro- 

 ductions being vegetables, as well as other Fungi, and I am 



* It is something like the "earcode" of Dujardiii, and not "cellulose." 

 t Exactly as in the achenia of many Composita, as, for example, in those of 

 Rhagadiolus. 



