320 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
the Marsh Mitrula (Fig. 32), of a bright orange- 
yellow colour growing abundantly in July on dead 
leaves in wayside pools, will give a good idea of 
this order. Such is a brief analysis of the differ- 
ent orders of British Fungi, and a general survey 
of the different kinds of fructification. 
We find the same gradation in the scale of de- 
velopment among the fungi that exists among the 
(2) Natural size. (4) Ascus containing sporidia, highly magnified. 
Fic. 32.—MITRULA PALUDOSA. 
flowering plants. The moulds and mildews are 
analogous to annual herbaceous plants, and the 
agarics represent trees. And just as a tree is not 
an individual but a perennial colony of annual 
plants, growing vertically in the air instead of 
horizontally on the ground, so a mushroom may 
be theoretically regarded as a mass of closely com- 
pacted mould, a corporate structure built up of a 
