FUNGI. 293 
seed-vessel as readily from as to the light, as un- 
consciously downwards to the earth, as upwards 
from it. Give it air, warmth, moisture, and un- 
disturbed quiet, and it can live and luxuriate with- 
out light. Fungi growing in mines exhibit the 
same characteristic colours which they display on 
the surface of the ground. Sometimes, however, 
species that grow in caves, or in hollow trees, 
assume the most curious abnormal forms, their 
metamorphosis remaining incomplete, so that in- 
stead of producing fructification the whole fungus 
becomes a monstrous modification of the mycel- 
jum. But whether these abnormalities are caused 
by the want of light or by the equable conditions 
of warmth and moisture developing the vegetative 
at the expense of the reproductive system, as is 
the case in flowering plants, is open to doubt. At 
all events, their love of seclusion and darkness 
gives an etiolated, sickly complexion to the whole 
tribe. In consequence of this habit, they are as a 
rule the most sombre of all plants, although in- 
stances occur in which the prevailing neutral tints 
are exchanged for the most brilliant scarlets and 
yellows. Green, which is the most frequent of all 
colours, the household dress of our mother earth, 
more characteristic of ferns, mosses, lichens, and 
alge than of the higher plants, is almost unknown 
in the fungi ; and even when it occurs, it is always: 
