322 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
that creeps over an old shoe and that perishes in 
a day. 
Reproduction among the fungi is not so simple 
a process as was formerly supposed. Sexual ele- 
ments have been found among them, as among all 
other cryptogamic plants. Spermogones (Fig. 33) 
or antheridia, entirely similar or analogous to those 
of lichens, are observed in different tribes. In the 
cavity of these spermogones, filled with a viscid 
Fic. 33 —SPERMOGONES OF EcprIcu BERBERIDIS—Highly magnified. 
fluid, occur very minute cylindrical bodies called 
spermatia, similar to the so-called spermatozoids of 
lichens. These exhibit the characteristic move- 
ments already described, evolve a perceptible 
odour, which has been compared to that of the 
pollen of the willow, and when ripe are expelled 
from a small orifice in the summit of the spermo- 
gone. Zoospores swimming off when disengaged 
from the conidia, by means of vibratile cilia, have 
