Efjc Creatfttrg of ISatang. 



512 



FUMITORY. Fumaria. — , BULBOUS. 

 Corydalis bullosa, also Adoxa Moschatel- 

 lina. 



FUNALIS. Formed of coarse fibres re- 

 sembling cords. 



FUNARIEI, FUNARIA. A small natural 

 order and genus of acrocarpous mosses 

 with a pear-shaped capsule, and the calyptra 

 much inflated and vesicular below, and 

 subulate above. The peristome is either 

 doable, single, or altogether wanting, the 

 vesicular calyptra being the point of 

 greatest importance. Funaria hygrome- 

 trica grows in all parts of the world, and 

 is extremely common in this country, es- 

 pecially on charred or burnt soil, and is 

 conspicuous from its large calyptra and 

 cernuous heads. [M. J. B.] 



FUNDAMENTAL. Constituting the es- 

 sential part of anything , in a plant, the 

 axis and its appendages. 



FUNDI or FUNDUNGI. The Hungry 

 Rice, Paspalum exile. 



FUNDUS PLANTS. The collar, or place 

 of junction of root and stem. 



FUNGALES, FUNGALS. A name in- 

 tended to include under one head Fungi 

 and Licliens, the latter of which are so 

 closely allied that it is often difficult to tell 

 to which division some given species may 

 belong. [M. J. B.] 



FUNGI. A large class of cryptogams 

 distinguished from Algce more by habit 

 than by any general character. They agree 

 with them in their cellular structure, 

 which is void of anything like vascular tis- 

 sue except in a very few cases, while they 

 differ in their scarcely ever being aquatic, 

 in deriving nutriment from the substance 

 on which they grow, and in the far lower 

 degree of development of the organs of 

 impregnation — the impregnating cells, 

 where they really possess a sexual function, 

 being extremely simple, void of cilia?, and 

 therefore possessed of nothing more than 

 molecular motion, the only exception being 

 that of Leptomitus and its allies, which 

 seem to be almost intermediate. The 

 myxogastrous Furagii, whose spores produce 

 a body resembling certain infusoria, are 

 wholly exceptional, and the indications of 

 animal life which they exhibit point in 

 another direction. 



Minute and abstruse as are these differ- 

 ences, it is almost impossible to distinguish 

 certain Fungi and Algce without them. 

 Tate, for instance, a Peronospora and a 

 Chroolepus. Both exhibit erect branched 

 threads, from the upper part of which cells 

 are produced containing a thick grumous 

 matter. At first sight no one would think 

 they could belong to very different sections 

 of the vegetable kingdom. When, how- 

 ever, we look more closely, we find first, 

 that the one is a true parasite, the other 

 growing indifferently on bark or stone, 

 and deriving its nourishment from the 

 surrounding air ; and then when we turn 

 from the habit to intimate structure, ' 



we find that the spores of the Peronospora 

 fall off and germinate at once, while the 

 analogous bodies in the Chroolepus burst 

 and send out a multitude of minute repro- 

 ductive bodies moving about for a time 

 by means of long lash-shaped cilia?. A 

 second form of fruit which occurs in 

 Peronospora shows a greater difference 

 between the two as genera, but not as 

 regards important sectional character. A 

 similar parallel might be made in other 

 cases. 



Popularly speaking, Fungi may be recog- 

 nised either as the creatures of corruption 

 —springing, that is, from various bodies, 

 whether animal or vegetable, in a more or. 

 less advanced stage of decomposition — or 

 as parasites on living bodies, producing 

 an injurious change. The ephemeral toad- 

 stools of the hotbed, the mushrooms of 

 our rich pastures, the sap-balls on decay- 

 ing trees, the moulds which infest our food 

 and even the tissues of living animals, 

 the mildew bunt and smut of our corn- 

 crops, with many other more or less fami- 

 liar objects, are so many Fungi, all agreeing 

 in the main particulars which we have in- 

 dicated, and so differing from the green 

 scum of our brooks, and the weeds of the 

 sea, though distinguished from each other 

 by essential differences of structure. In 

 some, no indications of sexual differences 

 have been found, while in others bodies 

 occur, which in all probability have an 

 especial sexual function, though at present 

 we are without actual proof of the fact. 



Fungi are divided into two great sections, 

 characterised by the mode in which the 

 reproductive bodies are formed. In the 

 one, they are simply the terminal joint or 

 joints of the component threads or cells, 

 altered in form from those which precede 

 them, and at length falling off and repro- 

 ducing the plant, in which case they are 

 called spores. In the other they are formed 

 from the contents of certain sacs or asci, 

 and are usually definite in number, and 

 multiples of four, where they are not 

 reduced below that number ; in this case 

 they are called sporidia. Both spores and 

 sporidia may be multicellular, and in ger- 

 mination give rise to as many threads of 

 spawn as there are cells. In many species 

 of the latter division, a second form of 

 fruit occurs, which is naked as in the first ; 

 and in every division two or more kinds of 

 fruit are frequently produced by the same 

 species, a fact which takes from the ma- 

 thematical precision of the two great di- 

 visions, though it does not interfere with 

 their natural affinities. 



Fungi may be divided into six principal 

 classes, the first four of which bear naked 

 spores, the two latter sporidia: — 



1. Hymenomycetes, in which the fructi- 

 fying surface is at length exposed, if not so 

 in its first origin. Mushrooms and sap- 

 balls are well-known examples. 



2. Gasteromycetes, in which the fruc- 

 tifying surface is always enclosed at 

 first, and is never completely exposed, 

 except in old age or decay, in consequence 

 of its sinuous intricate character, even 



