60 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
That the fungi live—though not exclusively, or indeed at all 
in some of their species—upon the decomposition of vegetable mat¬ 
ter, is proved by the latitudes in which they are most abundant, and 
the times of the year at which they make their appearance in the 
full development of the part of fructification. The mushroom, or, as 
we may without much impropriety term it, “ the flower,”—though 
it is a flower of peculiar character, without obvious distinction of 
what fertilizes, and what is fertilized, and thus totally different 
from all the common flowers to which we are accustomed to 
restrict the name,—is an instance. 
In the tropical regions, where there is no seasonal fall and 
decomposition of the leaf, the fungi are so few as scarcely to form 
a characteristic part of the vegetation ; but as the latitude in¬ 
creases, and the seasons become more strongly marked, the fungi 
are found in greater number ; and the numbers, both of species 
and of individuals, go on increasing with the latitude, until the 
extreme limit is arrived at, and vegetation falls off in all its tribes, 
except the lichens, which are little subject to annual decomposi¬ 
tion, and therefore afford no food for the fungi. Thus, these 
plants, in their more characteristic species, do not follow either 
the direct or the inverse ratio of vegetable action ; but within the 
limit already mentioned, they increase with the shortness of the 
summer, and the greatness of the autumnal change. Circum¬ 
stances favourable to their growth may develop them at any 
season of the year, but their proper season is the autumn, or that 
period when the decomposition of vegetable matter begins. Even 
then, however, they do not assail those plants, or parts of plants, 
which are still in vigorous health ; for when fungi come upon 
meadows, or lawns, or other grassy surfaces, they do not in the 
least consume or injure the green part of the grass, but rather 
refresh its greenness, and quicken its growth, by “ working up,” 
if the term may be allowed, the dead matter which is decomposing 
among the roots, and which, but for the labour of the fungi, would 
act as a poison to the living plants, and parts of plants. The ■ 
benefit which the fungi confer in this way is very clearly seen in 
those “ fairy rings,” or increasing circles of fungi, with which many 
of the downs and dry commons are marked. One year’s labour 
of these fungi performs the work of many years ; and the new 
crop always vegetates wdthout the line of the old one, while the 
grass upon that line is exceedingly vigorous, after the fungi have 
