FUNGI. 427 
finger’s touch would fade.” While rocks and 
forests have been destroyed, without leaving a 
trace of their existence behind, the most delicate 
and fugacious organisms have been handed down 
to us in the most beautiful preservation from the 
remote postpliocene period—the temporal and 
fragile thus transformed into the eternal. 
Having thus given a somewhat lengthened and 
detailed account of the structure, properties, uses, 
and other peculiarities of this curious and interest- 
ing tribe of plants, it may be proper, in conclusion, 
to glance at the place which they occupy as ws- 
thetic objects in this fair creation. The careful 
observer will find the universal spirit of beauty 
sometimes as richly represented in these produc- 
tions of corruption and decay, as in the more 
admired products of the vegetable kingdom. The 
very commonest fungi, which grow in the darkest 
and dreariest spots, are invested with a beauty, not 
essential to the part which they perform in the 
operations of nature, or to the efficiency of the 
organs, whether of absorption or reproduction, 
with which they are furnished. The fructification 
of one isa most graceful umbrella, adorned with 
delicately-shaded hues, and with exquisitely carved 
veils, fringes, and gills; that of another presents 
the most beautifully sculptured ivory pores and 
sinuosities or richly-coloured tubes or spikes. 
