260 BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
which in nearly every variety is made up of cellular tissue 
(the exception being in the ferns), in having no true flowers with 
stamens and pistil, and in producing no true seed,consequently 
they are without embryos,—reproduction being brought about 
by minute granular mat ter called- spores or sptorules. Afewof them, 
as the ferns, have stems and leaves in which the woody matter 
is arranged in a zigzag manner, but the great mass of these 
plants rank low 7 in the scale of vegetable growths. They com¬ 
prise from 8000 to 10,000 species, or nearly one fifth of all the 
plants that exist. Amongst the most common plants which go 
to make up this division of the vegetable kingdom may be 
named the ferns, mosses, lichens, moulds, fungi, and algae or 
sea-weeds. “They are scattered over all climates and all 
quarters of the world, replenishing both earth and sea with 
vegetable life, and ascending into the region of the air, by 
the very levity of their seeds, spores or bulbules, to be wafted 
on the winds, till drenched with moisture they descend 
again towards the earth, ready to cling to the soil that suits 
them, if it should be even the surface of the flinty rock, or to 
spread themselves over mountains of eternal snow, or to 
immerse themselves in the waters of the ocean/' 
Most of them are very minute and of much interest, but 
require great time and patience with a good microscope to be 
thoroughly understood. The species of Aspergillus described 
as producing the death of the animals in question belongs to 
the above class of plants and to the natural order Fungi (Fun- 
gals). A familiar illustration will be found in the Agaricus cam- 
pjestris (mushroom) to the different parts of which the following 
name is given. When the stem arises from a bulbous enlarge¬ 
ment near the ground, this is called the volca, and the expanded 
cap on the top of the stem the pileus, beneath which will be 
found a number of lamina or plates which are called gills. 
The fungi are an exceedingly numerous class, some of them 
obtaining considerable size, but they are for the most part 
verv minute. Some are much valued as food, such as 
the Agaricus campestris (mushroom), Filer cibarium (truffle) 
and the Morchella esculenia (Morell) while others have 
proved themselves most dangerous poisons, such as the 
Agaricus muscaria (the fly agaric), &c. 
The Fungi contain a principle called Fungin } containing a 
large amount of nitrogen,and very nutritious, much resembling 
fibrin ; but in many this is combined with poisonous narcotic 
and acrid properties, which in some instances have produced 
very injurious and fatal effects. The cases recorded with 
the experiments and observations carried out by Professors 
Varnell and Tuson are of great interest to the profession, 
