NOTES ON THE FUNGI. 
519 
as a matter of course, that to avoid this the eye 
must be small if the field is small ; but the inii • 
nite variety which may be found, differing 
only in their colours and properties, would be 
sadly limited if we dictated the size of the eye, 
the breadth of the margin, or the quantity of 
white and yellow. "We merely wish people to 
study and stand by our forms, which are 
proved to be perfect, even by the fact that the 
nearer a flower comes to the standard, the 
better everybody — not only judges, but every- 
body — likes it. I have had occasion to 
notice the subject frequently, because the 
periodicals and papers will admit the detailed 
nonsense of mere pretenders. 
NOTES ON THE FUNGI. 
Perhaps nothing in nature gives more 
colour to the notion of spontaneous genera- 
tion than this particular race of plants ; but 
when we consider a little, instead of jumping 
at a conclusion, the fact of their growing 
every where on decaying matter of every de- 
scription, naturally has given rise among 
inconsiderate people, to the idea that such 
things come of themselves ; and this has been 
carried onward to plants. Many who support 
the dogma of spontaneous generation, affirm 
that the myriads of weeds which come up on 
earth, dug from the lowest depths, like Fungi 
in decaying bodies, come of themselves. Re- 
pudiating, however, the idea of any thing 
growing other than from its own proper 
origin, which with plants and Fungi are 
seeds, the following notice of this most sin- 
gular branch of natural history will be found 
interesting. 
There has been much discussion as to which 
of the three grand departments of nature these 
extraordinary productions actually belong to. 
They have been referred to the animal, to the 
vegetal, and even to the mineral kingdom ; 
but Necker affirms that they belong to neither 
of the three, and contends that they form 
a distinct yet intermediate kingdom. But 
almost all naturalists, however, think that the 
habits and economy of the Fungi indicate 
their proper place to be an inferior rank in 
the vegetal kingdom, in which they have 
accordingly classed them, although analysis 
proves that they are composed of ammonia, 
albumen, phosphoric salts, and other sub- 
stances which are found in animals, and the 
odour which they emit when in a state of 
putrefaction, resembles that from animal 
matter in the same condition. 
As the germs, or seeds, of the Fungi, which 
are exceedingly prolific, are so very minute 
that separately they escape the eye and even 
the microscope, it is not improbable that they 
are almost every where diffused, even in the 
flesh and fluids of living animals, and in the 
wood and sap of living plants, in readiness to 
perform their office immediately that the plant 
or the animal dies and begins to corrupt. 
Hence we find them in the greatest abundance 
and variety in the autumnal and winter 
months, when the wind, the frost, and the 
rain have increased the number of dead 
quadrupeds, birds, insects, and vegetals. The 
seeds are, probably, so small as to be actually 
blown by the winds into the almost imper- 
ceptible pores of plants, seeds, and animals, 
in or upon which they grow directly that they 
come in contact with any corrupt matter, even 
though the vegetal or animal be alive. Thus, 
the smaller species have been observed grow- 
ing on a diseased membrane, which separates 
the lungs from the rest of the viscera, before 
death ; they have, also, been observed grow- 
ing in fish just captured; on the eyes and 
beaks of living birds ; and on the bodies of 
living insects, and other creatures. When 
paste made of flour has become stale and 
putrid, it is soon overgrown, although closely 
corked, by the blue-mould fungus {Aspergillus 
glaucus), the seeds of which must be almost 
everywhere in more or less abundance, and 
inconceivably small to escape destruction 
when the grains of corn, in or about which 
they must have been previously concealed, 
are being ground into the finest flour. When 
the Fungi themselves decay, they are soon 
grown upon by other species. 
The whole tribe are remarkable for the 
rapidity with which they spring up and de- 
velop themselves. Sowerby says, that he has 
often placed specimens of the Phallus caninus 
by a window, over night, while in the egg- 
form, and they have been fully grown by the 
morning, and that he has never known them 
to grow in the day-time. 
Several species attain a very large size. 
Dr. Withering found a mushroom whose 
pileus, or cap, measured nine inches across, or 
twenty-seven in circumference. The Morn- 
ing Uei^ald of October 16th, 1833, mentions 
one which was thirty inches in the circum- 
ference of the pileus, eight inches round the 
stalk, and weighing two pounds and a half. 
The Manchester Herald of September, 1837, 
mentions one which was thirty-two inches in 
circumference of the pileus, ten round the 
stalk, and weighing one pound eight ounces. 
And Dr. Mant, Bishop of Down, mentions an 
Irish specimen larger still, it being eleven 
inches in diameter, or thirty-three in the cir- 
cumference of the pileus, and nine inches in 
height. Mr. Sowerby has a model of a 
gigantic specimen of Boletus, which was 
found growing in a blacksmith's cellar in the 
Haymarket. 
So apt are the Fungi to imbibe whatever 
