32 
YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION. 
the deposits characterized by the Sessile Oak, and are intermingled 
with ))()lished flint tools and weapons of" Neolithic age. 
The Fungfi, although their geographical distribution is far from 
being fully known, yet Mr. Geo. Massee, one of our leading mycologists, 
has shown that sufficient data have been accumulated to demonstrate 
clearly that fungi are subject to precisely the same distributional 
laws as those governing (jther forms of life, and'he has been able to 
trace out the probable ])hylogenetic se([uence of the evolution oi 
certain of the grou])s from their algal progenitors, a chronological 
ai-rangement supported by, and in harmony with, their known geo- 
logical succession in the rocks, for Zeiller has re(;orded the existence, 
in fossilized vegetable tissues of Lower Carboniferous and Permian 
age, of Chytridea , Mucovdcew, and Peronu^pnrca',?^ of which belong 
to the Phycomycetes, the most archaic and ])rimitive of existing fungi ; 
while numerous well-])reserved relics of Ascojuycefps, Pyrenomycetes, 
Discfmycetes and Ryphnmycetes have been found on the fossilized 
leaves and within the tissues and stems of many different plants in 
various strata from the (Carboniferous period upwards ; while the 
Basid'wmycetea, represented by species referred to Affaricinew and 
Polyporece, are present in the Tertiary formation. 
Geographically the same relations of the dominant groups with 
those of more archaic character are maintained exactly as in other 
forms of life. In the European region the higher and more recently 
evolved groups are predominant, while in tropical and sub-tropical 
countries, although representatives of all groups may be present, yet 
the older and more primitive families, Polyporew and Thelephoracecv, 
are more especially characteristic of those regions: and in the Arctic 
countries, with their unfavourable conditions of development, the 
more primitive parasitic fungi chiefly referable to Deateromycetes 
are in the ascendant. 
At the present day fungi are not indiscriminately scattered over 
the land, for the uplands, the lowlands, the marshes, the forests, the 
moors, and the mountains, each have their peculiar species which are 
restricted to them, and are not found under any of the other variously 
diverse conditions. The fungus-flora of a pine wood usually con- 
sists mainly (jf the more primitive and lowly organized species 
bearing dark or coloured s])ores ; while in the forests of oak and 
other broad-leaved deciduous trees, the later evolved and more 
highly organized kinds with minute white spores, are i)redominant, 
and are thus in acc(jrd with the more modern and advanced type 
of woodland they inhabit. 
The Agarics, which belong to the Hasidiomycetes, are the most 
dominant group. They are als(j the best known, and, perhaps, the 
most characteristic fungi of this country, and its members can be 
arranged into five groups, varying in the degree of pigmentation and 
the size of the spores, which characters also express their phylo- 
genetic sequence. 
