CHAPTER VI.
STETJCTURE OF FXINGI.
F u n g i , with very few exceptions, consist entirely of cells. In
about three genera alone is there anything at all resembling
the true vessels of flowering plants. These cells appear under
a variety of forms, from that of regular globules, to thin cylindrical
threads. In some cases, as in certain species of
Botrytis* (Plate 1, fig. 7), the whole plant consists of a single
branched cell, without any dissepiments, exactly as in some
of the scumlike green plants which float upon our stagnant
pools.t These cells generally contain a granular mass, but
in many Fungi the contents of certain privileged sacs are
transformed into bodies of various forms, capable of reproducing
the species, called Sporidia (Plate 1, fig. 2 b), while
in others distinct cells are formed at the tips of certain
* These species, which grow on living leaves, are now commonly referred to
the genus Peronospora. They doubtless form a distinct group, but if these be
separated, the genus B o try tis will no longer exist, for tho others will pass to
Verticillium, Bolyactis, and other genera. Nothing can be more absurd than
to break up a genus, and discard the original title altogether. Mioheli’s Bo iry tts
is evidently the same with Polyactis, and as that genus is now almost universally
adopted, the name B o try tis ought to be reserved for B o try tis p a ra sitica
and its allies, as that species was the first which received the generic name after
the time o f Michcli.
t As in the genus Vaucheria.
threads or of their ramifications, when they are called Spores
(Plate 1, fig. I a). Hence when Fungi are reduced to the
very simplest forms under which they can appear, we have on
the one hand the genus Gymnosporium (Plate I, fig. 8), which
consists of an almost rudimentary base or spawn, for no
Fungus can grow without* some cells or threads, however
obscure, from which the fruit may spring. On the other baud,
w'G have the genus Ascomyces (Plate I, fig. 9), consisting in
like manner of asci filled with sporidia.
In these cases the reproductive organs predominate to the
almost total exclusion of the vegetative. In almost every
case, however, the parts which bear those organs are the most
conspicuous, and often the only ones which attract general
notice. The pileus of an Agaric, for instance, with its stem
and gills, or, speaking collectively, the fruit, is far more prominent
than the spawn or mycelium. The largest Agaric,
however, admits of close comparison with the simplest Mould.
Let us take as an example Botrytis (Plate 1, fig. 7). We
have three evident parts ; the horizontal threads which creep
amongst the loose tissue of the under side of the leaves, which
answers to the spawn of the Mushroom; the erect threads
which spring from it, bursting through the stomates, which
arc represented in the Mushroom by the threads or cellular
tissue of which the stem of the Mushroom is composed, and
which, branching in every direction, pass into the cap, and
from thence into the gills,t where their free extremities
* The Yeast'plant may seem an exception. I t must be remembered, however,
that it is originally derived from a Mould or Moulds, which have two distinct
parts, the spawn, or, as it is called in this case, hypha, and the fruit-
bearing threads.
t According to Bonorden, in some cases the external cells o f the stem form
the fructifying portion o f the gills, but this is exceptional, the fructifying tissue
of those organs being in general derived from the cells o f the cap or pileus.