K^lsTS^S CITY 



Review of Science and Industry, 



A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 



SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 

 VOL VIII. MAY, 1884. NO. 1. 



BOTANY. 



FUNGI— THEIR NATURE AND HABITS. 



REV. L. J. TEMPLIN. 



The most casual observation of the objects that surround us reveals the 

 fact that they consist of innumerable and greatly varied forms of organic beings. 

 A little scrutiny shows that these all belong to one or the other of two great king- 

 doms — the Animal and the Vegetable. These, in their higher forms, are dis- 

 tinguished by such marked characteristics that they cannot be mistaken ; but in 

 their lower forms they approach each other so closely that the unprofessional ob- 

 server is often at fault, and even scientists and specialists sometimes engage in 

 grave controversies as to which kingdom an individual, or species, should be 

 assigned. But careful and persistent investigation always succeeds in clearing 

 up all mysteries and removing all doubts as to the place any organic being should 

 occupy in the estabhshed system of classification. Confining our attention to 

 vegetable organisms we find two grand series, distinguished, especially, by differ- 

 ent modes of fructification and reproduction. These series are the phanerogam- 

 ous, or flowering plants, and the cryptogamous — flowerless, or spore-bearing 

 plants. 



As between the animal and vegetable kingdoms we find the line of demark- 

 ation but dimly drawn, so we find these two series of plants so nearly approach- 

 ing in some of their forms that a knowledge of their natural history is essential 

 to enable one to readily assign them to the series to which they belong. Some 



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