12 INTRODUCTION TO CIIYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



of spores, if recorded observations are to be trusted, concur 

 in the formation of a single plant. But whether this be so 

 or not, it is quite certain, without having recourse to such 

 theoretic notions as would make an Agaric to consist of a 

 mere closely compacted mass of mucedinous filaments, bearing- 

 fruit at their apices, that many fungi arise from the confluence 

 of mycelium germinating from many spores. Ehrenberg* has 

 long since shown in Erysiplie and Clavaria, that numerous 

 spores concur in the production of an individual plant ; and 

 no one can be a diligent observer of fungi under all their 

 phases, without being convinced of the fact. How far the 

 concurrence of a number of spores may be absolutely neces- 

 sary is uncertain.! The union by means of anastomosis 

 is as intimate as if all the threads of the mycelium were 

 derived from a single spore, and is not to be regarded in 

 the same light as that kind of union which takes place in 

 grafting amongst Phsenogams ; for though it is jjossible that 

 in the process of budding and grafting, the divided cells of 

 the graft or scion may, in certain rare cases, coalesce — so 

 as to form a single cell partaking of the nature of both 

 (a matter, however, which can be only conjectural), — as, for 

 example, in the variety of Gytisus which bears the proper 



* Ehrenberg de Mycetogenesi. 



t Individuality amongst fungi is, after all,very different from what it is 

 amongst Phsenogams, If two trees become imited by the inosculation 

 of their roots or branches, no one would consider them as a single indi- 

 vidual; whereas many fungi which pass for individuals originally 

 consisted of numerous distinct plants. Take, for instance, one of those 

 Thelephorce which creep over the surface of branches, and arise from 

 the orifices of Sphcerm with which the bark is studded. There may at 

 first be a hundred distinct patches, each in itself showing all the charac- 

 ters of the species, and in perfect fruit ; as these, however, spread, they 

 fall in with other individuals, which become perfectly confluent, and the 

 common patch differs only from those of which it is composed in its 

 larger size. The hymenium is perfectly continuous, and does not ex- 

 hibit a trace of the members of which it is constituted. No one would 

 then hesitate to consider it an individual. Patches of moss might be- 

 come confluent in the same way, but the commonest observer would at 

 once see that they were mere masses consisting of a thousand or more 

 individual plants, interlaced indeed, and almost inextricable, but still 

 distinct. 



