NATURE OF FUNGI. 5 
from the solutions experimented upon, and to keep them ex- 
cluded, lies at the foundation of the theory. It must ever, as 
we think, be matter of doubt that all germs were not excluded 
or destroyed, rather than one of belief that forms known to be 
developed day by day from germs should under other conditions 
originate spontaneously. 
Fungi are veritably and unmistakably plants, of a low or- 
ganization, it is true, but still plants, developed from germs, 
‘somewhat analogous, but not wholly homologous, to the seeds of 
higher orders. The process of fertilization is still obscure, but 
facts are slowly and gradually accumulating, so that we may 
hope at some not very distant period to comprehend what as 
yet are little removed from hypotheses. Admitting that fungi 
are independent plants, much more complex in their relations 
and development than was formerly supposed, it will be ex- 
pected that certain forms should be comparatively permanent, 
that is, that they should constitute good species. Here, also, 
efforts have been made to develop a theory that there are no 
legitimate species amongst fungi, accepting the terms as hither- 
to applied to flowering plants. In this, as in allied instances, 
too hasty generalizations have been based on a few isolated 
facts, without due comprehension of the true interpretation of 
such facts and phenomena. Polymorphism will hereafter receive 
special illustration, but meantime it may be well to state that, be- 
cause some forms of fungi which have been described, and which 
have borne distinct names as autonomous species, are now proved 
to be only stages or conditions of other species, there is no reason 
for concluding that no forms are autonomous, or that fungi which 
appear and are developed in successive stages are not, in their 
entirety, good species. Instead, therefore, of insinuating that 
there are no good species, modern investigation tends rather to 
the establishment of good species, and the elimination of those 
that are sprvrious. It is chiefly amongst the microscopic species 
that polymorphism has been determined. In the larger and 
fleshy fungi nothing has been discovered which can shake our 
faith in the species described half a century, or more, ago. In 
the Agarics, for instance, the forms seem to be as permanent and 
