145 
two Kingdoms, and in the meantime their literature js chiefly to 
be sought in botanical works and their study must always be 
associated with that of fungi. 
I have brought a few drawings to illustrate the characters of 
some of the different genera and to show the wonderful contri- 
vances for the dispersion of the spores which they possess. The 
group may be apportioned into two main divisions—first, those 
that have lime in the form of calcium carbonate in their struc- 
ture, and second, those without lime. In those containing lime, 
it is either in minute rounded granules incorporated in the 
sporangium-walls and in pockets in the capillitium—the 
Physaraceae; or the lime is deposited in more or less stellate 
crystals on the outside of the sporangium-wall—the Didymiaceae. 
In this division the spores are dispersed by the action of rain and 
wind without any special contrivance for scattering them abroad. 
In those without lime we meet with various structures of great 
beauty. In Stemonitis the rigid stalk is continued up the centre | 
of the cylindrical sporangium as a columella, from which branches | 
are given off that divide at the surface into a net, so that when | i 
the delicate membrane covering the meshes shrivels up on dry- 
ing, the spores are contained in an open-work basket, and 
ar and can be borne over the face of the earth. In the genus 
Arcyria, during the short time that the sporangia take in de- 
veloping from the creeping plasmodium to their perfect form, a Wai 
capilitium jis constructed consisting of a dense network of elastic | ul 
threads. This expands to many times the volume of the un- 
spiral bands extremely sensitive to moisture, so that if you 
een to twist and writhe, lifting the Spores, and again giving | 
them to the winds. These are a few out of many of the striking Nail 
leatures of the ripe fruits. el 
And now | wish to say a. few words about their life | 
Speaking Senerally, the spores of fungi germinate by sprout- ee it 
is A thread Gs produced which branches and forms Halll 
the mycelium, which everyone knows so well in mushroom it 
‘pawn, and “ drycret” or “ bitetmould ” When the spore of a ! i 
Ne may call it, breaks, and the contents creep out as an inde- i 
Pendent amoeboid body—the swarm-cell. In a few minutes the yt 

