978 
CRYPTOGAMIA. 
Cr.Ass XXIV, 
Order 9 
Reproductive organs uniform. Sporulcs (e) arranged in tubular cells (/) placed in some parts of the external 
surface. ' Substance various {g), mostly thick andfieshy, sometimes vesicular. Frond none. 
In speaking of the eighth order, Lichens, it has been observed, that they, Algse and Fungi, might be con- 
sidered, collateral. But perhaps Fungi should be estimated as still lower in the scale of creation than 
Lichens. From some passages in the writings of a celebrated Swedish author upon Fungi, Mr. Fries, whose 
mode of arrangement is almost entirely adopted here, it would seem as if he considered the three orders to 
consist of the same beings altered by the material on which they grow, and organized according to the different 
elements upon which they depend for support. Algas, he observes, which are much extended in their native 
element, water, when exposed to tlie air, contract and become Lichens. Thus Nostoc muscorum becomes 
Collema limosum, &c. ; and Sir James Smith has even decided, that Lichina pygmaea when growing under water 
is an Alga, and when above water a Lichen. But the differences between Fungi and Algae, or Lichens, are 
greater, and arise out of their essence ; that of Fungi being always reproductive, of Alg£e primitive. In AlgEe, 
the tliallus is the most essential part, and the reproductive organs of secondary importance ; in Fungi, the whole 
plant is generally a mass of reproductive matter, and the thallus always accidental. Fungi always grow upon 
dead vegetable matter ; Lichens always upon living vegetation. The bark which, when living, bears Lichens, 
produces Fungi as soon as it begins to decay : and even on the same half-dead branch, the living side will be 
found occupied by Lichens, and the dead by minute Fungi. The lowest Fungi are considered by Fries, to bear 
the same relation to plants as Entozoa to animals ; for which reason, he is of opinion, that all infusorial plants 
are Fungi, and not Alga. But this may be doubted. The number of Fungi which may be conceived to exist 
iS incalculable. Multitudes have been discovered by the researches of modern observers, and multitudes still 
remain to be detected, especially in extra-European countries. In Sweden, in the small space of a square 
furlong, where the number of Phaenogamous plants was 420, and of Lichens and Algae 430, Fries discovered 
more than 2000 species of Fungi. 
The most celebrated writers on Fungi are Micheli, Schgefler, BuUiard, Bolton, Sowerby, and Greville, for 
figures ; and Persoon, Link, Nees von Esenbeck, Fries, and Greville, as systematists. 
Link defines the essence of a Fungus to be sporules disposed in a series, in elongated tubular cells ; the cells 
situated in some part of the external surface. 'I'he part in which the reproductive organs are placed is called 
the hymenium {a), the hollow base from which the stem or stipes {a) arises is named the volva yb) or wrapper]; 
the upper part is the cap or pileus (c), which is provided on the inferior surface with thin radiating expansions, 
which are termed gills or lamellce, among which the sporules are situated. Many Agarics have a delicate fringe 
connecting the margin of the pileus at a certain age with the stem ; this is called the veil (rf), and is either 
general [universale), when adnate with the surface of the pileus, but becoming obsolete with age ; or it is partial 
when it extends only from the margin of the pileus to the stipes. The annulus (d) is a kind of veil, which is 
sometimes fixed to the stem, at others free and capable of being moved upwards and downwards. The 
Peridium, Perithecium, or Perisporiura, are different names for the envelope immediately enwrapping the 
sporules. 
Tribe I. HYMENOMYCETES. 
Hymenium naked. 
Class I. HYMENINI v. ACARICINiE. 
Hymenium distinct. Receptacle long or expanded, superior. 
Division I. Pileati. 
Receptacle dilated, occasionally branched, having a tendency to an orbicular form. Hymenium inferior. 
Asci fixed. 
2365. Agaricus. Hymenium in lamella. Lamellce simple, parallel. 
* Stem central, ivith a veil. Gills unchangeable. Sporidia white. 
1. Amanita. Veil double, universal separate, partial annular somewhat persistent. 
2. Lepiota. Veil simple, universal, concrete, annular, somewhat persistent. 
Observations. 
Tribe I. Hymenomycetes. This tribe is readily distinguished from the others by its hymenium containing 
sporules within the surface, and not naked ; from the Pyrenomycetes by the want of a perithecium and a 
reproductive nucleus ; from G aster omycetes by the want of a peridium inclosing the sporules, which constitute 
the mass of the fungus, and from the Hyphomycetes and Coniomycetes by the sporidia not being exposed. 
Division I. Pileati. This constitutes the most extensive division in Fungi, and includes almost everything 
which was known to the ancients. Dioscorides mentions one or two species distinctly, comprehending the remain- 
der among his eatable and unwholesome kinds. Pliny talks of the very numerous kinds of fungi, but describes 
very few. C. Bauhin knew about sixty, which he chiefly obtained from Clusius ; "Tournefort had two genera 
and eighty-seven species ; Micheli six genera and about 800 species ; Linnaus three genera and fifty species; 
Persoon, in his Synopsis, mentions nine genera and 683 species ; finally. Fries describes more than a 1000 
species arranged under many genera and subgenera. 
The species are widely scattered over all Europe, but the extra European fungi, with the exception of thasc 
