FUNGI 



THEIR NATURE, USES, INFLUENCES, ETC. 



I. 



NATURE OF FUNGI. * 



The most casual observer of Nature recognizes in almost every 

 instance that comes under his notice in every-day life, without 

 the aid of logical definition, the broad distinctions between an 

 animal, a plant, and a stone. To him, the old definition that an 

 animal is possessed of life and locomotion, a plant of life with- 

 out locomotion, and a mineral deficient in both, seems to be 

 sufficient, until some day he travels beyond the circuit of 

 diurnal routine, and encounters a sponge or a zoophyte, which 

 possesses only one of his supposed attributes of animal life, but 

 which he is assured is nevertheless a member of the animal 

 kingdom. Such, an encounter usually perplexes the neophyte 

 at first, but rather than confess his generalizations to have 

 been too gross, he will tenaciously contend that the sponge 

 must be a plant, until the evidence produced is so strong that 

 he is compelled to desert his position, and seek refuge in the 

 declaration that one kingdom runs into the other so imper- 

 ceptibly that no line of demarcation can be drawn between 

 them. Between these two extremes of broad distinction, and 

 no distinction, lies the ground occupied by the scientific student, 

 who, whilst admitting that logical definition fails in assigning 

 briefly and tersely the bounds of the three kingdoms, contends 



