genera, Sphæria and Peziza-whose ideal forms, in the former case a simple round ball furnished at the apex with a minute orifice, and filled internally with minute flask-shaped seed-vessels; and in the latter case, a shallow cup or plane disk of gelatinous matter, surrounded with a margin-are so diversified, that in Great Britain there are no less than 200 species of the one, and 106 species of the other. Some of the other genera are also unusually large, showing how rigidly nature's laws of uniformity and variety are adhered to in this class of plants.

The following instances may be brought forward, as illustrations of the remarkable shapes which many of the fungi exhibit. On the trunk of the oak, the ash, the beech, and the chestnut, may occasionally be seen a fungus, so remarkably like a piece of bullock's liver that it may be known from that circumstance alone. This is the Fistulina hepatica or liver fungus. Its substance is thick, fleshy, and juicy, of a dark modena red, tinged with vermilion. It is marbled like beet-root, and consists of fibres springing from the base, from which a red pellucid juice like blood slowly exudes. Of all vegetable substances this exhibits the closest resemblance to animal tissue. Even in the minutest particular it seems to be a caricature of nature, a sportive imitation on an unfeeling oak-tree of the largest gland of the animal body. Tennyson might, with more truthfulness, personify an oak thus furnished with a substitute for the seat of passion, than the garrulous individual which adorned the woods of Sumner Chase! As already mentioned, it sometimes attains an enormous size, hanging down from the trunk

of the oak like the liver of one of the geological monsters of the Preadamite world. Like the liver it is also nutritious, and forms a favourite article of food in Austria, though it is somewhat tough and acrid in taste. Another remarkable species of fungus, called Jew's Ears (Exidium auricula Juda) from its close resemblance to the human ear, clings to the trunks of living trees, particularly the elder, throughout the whole autumnal season. It is of a dusky or red-brown colour, like the ear of a North American Indian, and is wrinkled with large swelling veins branching from the middle, where they are strongest, and somewhat convoluted, the upper side covered with a hoary velvet down, the inside smooth and darker coloured. When it grows on a perpendicular stump or tree, it turns upwards. Another remarkable species (Tremella cerebrina), occurring occasionally in winter and spring on dead wood and branches in very moist, dark places, exactly resembles the brain of an animal. Its substance is of a dirty-white colour, more or less tinged or streaked with red, like the ramifications of minute blood-vessels. It occurs in scolloped undulating masses, of a tender, gelatinous consistence when young, growing tougher when old. Its congener, the Tremella mesenterica-of more frequent occurrence all the year round, particularly on furze-bears a strong resemblance to the human mesentery. It is of a rich orange colour. This extraordinary resemblance which different fungi bear to the different parts of the animal body, served to confirm the opinion of the ancient botanists and herbalists, that they were animal structures, or at least intermediate links between the animal and vegetable kingdoms.

The simplest fungi consist of a few primordial cells, either separate or conjoined, or of cellular, branched filaments or threads, performing the functions of nutrition and reproduction. Between these and the mushroom, which may be regarded as exhibiting the highest development of fungoid life, there are numerous intermediate forms more or less complex. Some resemble minute mussels with their edges upwards; some are shell-shaped, and others shrubby and branched like coral. Some form large round balls, splitting into star-like expanding rays; others are crowned with mitres or peaked caps. Some are cup-shaped, trumpet-shaped, bell-shaped. Some, such as the leaden-coloured Nidularia so frequent in potatofields, form a nest in which to rear their young. One forms a yellow scum on moss-tufts in woods, which in a few days dries up and becomes converted into a heap of black powder like soot; another forms, on the stems of grass some inches above the soil, a thick white froth, somewhat resembling the salivaceous exudation of the Cicada spumaria so frequent in summer woods, and which may easily be supposed of animal origin. Some form beautiful little goblets elevated on slender hair-like stems; while others are only to be seen through a thick red lattice-work which surrounds them. In short, there is almost no end to the vague, indeterminate shapes which this curious tribe exhibits. Nature, in a capricious or sportive mood, seems to have formed them in imitation of the higher objects of creation, as they are her humblest and latest productions. Having such extremely simple and plastic materials to work upon, she seems to have followed the wildest vagaries of fancy in

the determination of their shapes, and to have moulded many of them in imitation of the substances upon which they are produced.

Although fungi in general are sober, nun-like plants, preferring quiet quaker colours suitable to the dim secluded places which they usually affect, yet some of them depart widely from this soberness, and exhibit themselves in the most gaudy hues. Some species are of a brilliant scarlet colour; others of a bright orange. Many are yellow, while a few don the imperial purple. In short, they are to be found of every colour, from the purest white to the dingiest black, dark emerald or leafgreen alone excepted. Some are beautifully zoned with iridescent convoluted circles, or broad stripes of different hues. Some shine as if sprinkled with mica; others are smooth as velvet, and soft as kid-leather. Such is a rapid survey of the varied forms, colours, and qualities exhibited by these simple plants; and surely it is sufficient to show us the vast amount of interest connected with them.

Let us take a specimen of one of the most perfectlyformed and highly-developed fungi, the common shaggy mushroom for instance (Agaricus procerus, Fig. 27), which is also the most familiar example, and endeavour to point out the peculiarities of its structure. Like all plants, it consists of two distinct parts, the organs of nutrition or vegetation, and the organs of reproduction; the former bearing but a very small proportion in size to the latter. The organs of nutrition or vegetation consist of greyish-white interlacing filaments, forming a flocculent net-like tissue, and penetrating and ramifying

through the decaying substances on which the mushroom grows. These filaments are formed of elongated colourless cells. They are developed under ground, and in other plants would be called roots. This part of the fungus is called by botanists mycelium, and is popularly known as the spawn by which the mushroom is frequently propagated. In favourable circumstances this mycelium spreads with great rapidity, sometimes, especially when prevented from developing organs of repro

FIG. 27.-PARTS OF MUSHROOM (Agaricus procerus).

(a) Pileus or Cap. (b) Hymenium or Gills. (c) Annulus. (d) Stipe or Stalk. (e) Volva. (f) Mycelium or Spawn. (g) Spores. (h) Basidia. duction, attaining enormous dimensions. It may be kept dormant, in a dry state, for a long time, ready to grow up into perfect plants when the necessary heat and moisture are applied. When the requisite conditions are present, and the mycelium begins to develop the reproductive tissue, there is formed at first a small round tubercle, in which the rudiments or miniature organs of the future plant may be distinctly traced, just as the