FUNGI THE most conspicuous of the plants to which we propose to direct the attention of the reader in this article, are, in general, termed by the English Mush-rooms or Toad-stools, and by the Scots Paddock-stools. By the Greeks they were called and they are now known to botanists under the general appellation of Fungi, a term sufficiently ex pressive of their soft, spongy, coriaccous texture. They constitute the first link of the great chain of vegetable life, and serve to connect organised bodies with inorganic mat ter. In simplicity of form and structure, they differ wide ly from the other vegetable tribes, as they present neither leaves nor flowers. Destined to spring up in the midst of cor ruption, and to draw their nourishment from putrefaction, the fastidious observer turns from them with disgust; and the true naturalist, while aware of their importance in the scale of being, finding them too perishable in their nature to be easily preserved in his cabinet, too capricious in their growth to be cultivated in his garden, and too sportive in their forms to be successfully delineated with his pencil, leaves them with regret to tut on the dunghill and to with er in the wood. Hence they are fancifully characterised by Linnxus as A'omades, autumnales, barbari, denudati, Juari di. voraces. Hiflora reducenteldantas hyenzatum, legunt, relicias Comm quisquilias sordesque.
The botanists of the first age, such as Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, attributed the origin of mush-rooms to a certain viscosity arising from putrefying vegetables. This notion very generally prevailed, until the immortal Harvey unfolded his second grand discovery, omne animal ex ovo. After this period, the germination of plants was investigated with greater care, and many able botanists ap plied themselves to the elucidation of the obscure physio logy of the fungi. Clusius had long before maintained that mushrooms spring from seeds ; but it was reserved for Boccone, 11Ientzel, and Tournefort, to establish the truth of the assertion. These eminent botanists were soon follow ed in the same track by Battarra, Dillenius, Gle ditsch, Litnixus, and IIedwig ; and more recently by Bul liard and Persoon. It is now demonstrated that mushrooms are as regularly organised vegetables as the phenogamoUs plants ; that they consist of fibres, vessels, and roots ; that they have peculiar organs appropriated for the production of the seeds ; and that without these seeds, no regeneration can take place. In short, they spring up, flourish, and de cay, like other organised beings, after having transmitted the principles of that vitality which they possess, to a new race, exactly similar to theMselves.
In order to'obtain the seeds of mushrooms, it is in gene ral only necessary to place them in a fresh state upon a plate of glass, the surface of which will soon be copiously covered with them. These seeds differ widely, like other vegetables, as to size, shape, and colour, and still more as to situation, insertion, and number. Some can easily be
seen by the naked eye, while others can with difficulty be detected by the highest magnifiers. These seeds are many of them so light as to be dispersed through the air, from whence they are precipitatbd upon the ground and upon plants by rain and snow. They scent in fact to be every where. They are the constant attendants on decaying vege table and animal matter. Is an apple rotting in a damp place, it is speedily covered with a mucor, sending forth its slender diverging stems, and forming a glory round it ? Is even the (lead hoof of a horse exposed for any time to the weather, it also will become covered with a fungus pecu liar to itself ? These plants cover the damp walls of cellars and caves, and .seem formed to flourish in those places which are unfit for the support of the more perfect vegeta bles. If we take these circumstances in connection with the infinite multitude of animalculx, which seem equally profusely distributed, we will be irresistibly led to the con clusion, that the earth itself is a mere receptacle of germs, each of which is ready to expand into vegetable or animal forms, upon the occurrence of circumstances favourable for its developement. In the early stages of the earth's ex istence, the germs of a few zoophytes only were unfolded, afterwards those of the testaceous mullusca expanded, and finally those of Ole mammiferous animals. In the course of these changes, one generation succeeded another, but the generation which followed was not the unaltered progeny of the preceding. The zoophytes of the first period differ from those of the last ; no living proofs of their existence remain, their memorials only are to be found imbedded in the solid rocks. It has happened to plants as to animals. At first the germs of the filices and the palms expanded into leaves ; and finally the surface of the earth became co vered with the stameniferous vegetables. But the ferns of the first period no longer exist ; the circumstances which favoured their growth are no more ; and their place is oc cupied by other ferns, the germs of which have expanded und6r a new arrangement. In this survey, the mind is as tonished when it considers the infinite number of those germs, prevented by the absence of favourable circum stances from ever expanding into maturity. Here the fol lowers of Harvey are bewildered ; and here the theory of equivocal generation, which suggested itself to the inhabi tants of the banks of the Nile, and to which Aristotle gave form and currency, seems calculated to soothe a reflecting and philosophical mind. The history of the earth counte nances such a theory, and the phenomena of the mineral kingdom yields it many powerful analogies, we had almost said direct proofs. It does not consider the generation of plants as the result of chance, any more than philosophers do the production of lightning, of rain, or of snow. All result from those laws which Omnipotence has imposed on the material and intellectual world.