39 



CHAPTER V. 



aEOWTH OF FUNai. 



Fungi consist of two principal parts, the vegetative and tlie 

 fructifying. If we take for instance a common Mushroom, 

 the vegetative is represented by the spawn, which for a time 

 carries on all the existing functions of the plant ; the fructi- 

 fying by the stem with its cap and gills, which bears nearly 

 the same relation to the spawn, as the flower with its various 

 organs to the stem on which it grows. The spawn may flou- 

 rish for years without ever bearing any fruit, but fruit can 

 never be produced without spawn. This fact is generally 

 overlooked, because the fruit bears usually so very large a 

 proportion to the spawn ; but the proportion is not greater 

 than in many parasitic plants — as, for instance, in the B.af- 

 flesia, which grows on the roots of Cissus, with but a very 

 slight apparatus between the flowers and the matrix ; and the 

 same may be said of Balanojjhorae , of which one is represented 

 in Plate 2, fig. 8. 



The spawn of Fungi, whether in a cellular or filamentous 

 condition, — for it undergoes an infinite variety of modifica- 

 tions, — is developed in various situations, and even Avhen pre- 

 sent beyond a doubt amongst the tissues of plants at whose 

 expense it lives, is very difficult to detect, in consequence of 



