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been referred to that tribe from mere external resemblance.
We know at least that the genus Pénicillium was contemporaneous
with the pines which yielded amber, and one or two
more genera undoubtedly existed at the same time. I t is
probable, too, that some of the black specks which occur on
leaves in very recent deposits are due to Sphæriaceous Fungi,
hut I know nothing of them except from the published figures.
Polyporus lucidus (Plate 16, fig. 3) occurs in a fossil state
in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. A specimen in the Kew
Museum is singularly like one from the Sikkim Himalaya
placed by its side.
CHAPTER V.
GEOWTH OF F U N G I .
I;
F u n g i consist of two principal parts, the vegetative and the
fructifying, i f we take for instance a common Mushroom,
the vegetative is represented by the spawn, which for a time
carries on all the existing functions of the plant; the fructifying
by the stem with its cap and gills, which hears nearly
the same relation to the spawn, as the flower with its various
organs to the stem on which it grows. The spawn may flourish
for years without ever bearing any fruit, but fruit can
never be produced without spawn. This fact is generally
overlooked, because the fruit hears usually so very large a
proportion to the spawn; but the proportion is not greater
than in many parasitic plants—as, for instance, in the Raf-
flesia, which grows on the roots of Cissus, with but a very
slight apparatus between the flowers and the matrix ; and the
same may he said of Balanophorce, of which one is represented
in Plate 2, fig. 8.
The spawn of Fungi, whether in a cellular or filamentous
condition,—for it undergoes an infinite variety of modifications,—
is developed in various situations, and even when present
beyond a doubt amongst the tissues of plants at whose
expense it lives, is very difficult to detect, in consequence of
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