ACOTYLEDONE^. 29 



the progress of this plant, as well as that of common 

 cultivated mushroom, there is reason to suspect that 

 like all other plants developed in the air, they are 

 composed of various members, viz. roots, branches, 

 and fructification, the latter only appearing 1 on the 

 surface. 



It is perfectly true that, on examination of the 

 mushroom plant, there appears only a system of 

 root-like fibres and the fructification ; but as these 

 fibres spread themselves to a considerable distance 

 round their first station, and bear the edible part on 

 their extremities, we must either consider them real 

 branches, or, if roots, that they are capable of bearing 

 fruit*, a circumstance which has no parallel in the 

 vegetable kingdom. Inferior tribes of plants which 

 inhabit the depths of the ocean, lakes, and rivers, are 

 composed of various organs, as roots, stems, &c., 

 and why may not such as the Fungi be similarly 

 organised ? Among the latter, however, there is at 

 least one exception, namely, Tuber (the Truffle) 

 which is decidedly subterranean and apparently de- 

 stitute of any other parts than an irregularly globose 

 tuber, without visible stem or branches : whence a 

 few slender fibres only are exserted. How the tuber 

 is reproduced remains a mystery ; whether by incon- 

 spicuous sexual organs or by viviparous subdivision 

 is not ascertained, any further than that very small 

 tubers are found near the larger. 



* It may sound uncouthly to call a mushroom a fruit, but it is 

 as proper to call it so as it is to call the pulp of an apple the fruit. 



