OF THE FUNGI. 
115 
CHAPTER XII. 
OF THE FUNGI. 
As the Alg^e require water in larger or smaller quantities 
for tlieir support, so the Fungi demand for their perfect 
development the decaying remains of other organisms. 
Wherever rottenness and corruption are present, there are 
we sure to meet with a rich Fungal vegetation. Let a 
plant for instance be sickly, it is seized upon immediately 
by a host of parasites belonging to this class ; their cotton- 
like mycelium penetrating its cellular tissue, disorganising 
its structure, and extracting nourishment from its infected 
juices. Wet wood, fallen leaves, animal excretions, all 
afford a nidus for these scavengers of nature, who only 
spring from the earth itself when the latter is rich in 
humus, or, in other words, in decayed vegetable matter. 
For a like reason they are to be found in abundance on 
damp tree stems and in mines and cellars, where fragments 
of rotten wood supply the conditions necessary to their 
existence. It must not however be imagined, that, because 
they are found in deep mines or in cellars, into which the 
rays of the sun never find their way, Fungi are less 
dependent for their perfect development on the action 
of light and air, than the more highly organised members 
of the vegetable kingdom. The fact is, that they exist 
in these localities only in a certain condition, as byssoid 
products or mycelium ; they never come to perfection 
It is a matter of grave doubt to this day, what is the perfect 
form of the well-known Rhacodium cellare. 
There is in truth scarcely a single object in the whole 
realm of nature which is not liable to the attacks of these 
minute enemies. The timber of our houses, as many a 
