History of the Fungi of the Rimini Territory

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...and I myself have observed many things; I have even instituted certain experiments. Therefore, I have recognized that the systems of those who trace fungi from putrefaction rest on uncertain foundations, and I will contend that fungi cannot be generated from putrefaction at all. Therefore, from a seed? With equal constancy of mind, I would be imprudent if I dared to trace them [to that].

It is a thing worthy of admiration that the illustrious men Marcellus Malpighius, Vallisnerius, Marsilius, and six hundred others, lost their oil and labor with skill and countless experiments in discovering the seed of fungi; which was the cause why many systems have appeared in our age in which putrefaction is decreed as the origin of fungi. But although the seed was not detected by those most skillful men, those systems, however, which call putrefaction onto the stage—even though they ingeniously explain how fungi could arise from putrefaction—do not demonstrate that they are generated in that way, for they summon to witness dreams rather than constant observations. Wherefore, I have often recognized those to collapse under my own observations. Here it would be long to relate the systems of botanists regarding the origin of fungi with their counter-arguments, since we have taken the resolution that we prefer this little work of ours to be filled with pages thought out by us, rather than by the opinions of others. I know it will happen that we may appear less erudite, yet we will spare the stomachs of our readers from warmed-over cabbage A classic Roman idiom for something repeated to the point of annoyance.. But whoever desires to be learned in these systems, let him approach the dissertation of Count Ferdinand Marsilius, in which a collection of almost all the botanists who have written about the fungal subject is displayed; indeed, the observations which are made against their opinions will become clear from those things which follow.

I myself therefore think, as I said, that there is no reason why fungi can arise from putrescent matter. For I judge fungi, whether they be boleti porcini/edible mushrooms, or fungi properly so called, or agarici bracket fungi, to be true plants, absolute in their own way. And just as it is common in plants that some are nourished immediately from the earth through roots, while others imbibe juice from the bark of others, as parasitic ones are accustomed to do, so it is easy to observe in fungi. Wherefore, I count among the parasites almost all fungi properly so called, and the agarici bracket fungi, since they are accustomed to sprout on the trunks of trees or on their roots, whether they be green or dry and fallen to the ground. But the others, such as coralloides coral-like fungi, boleti porcini/edible mushrooms, etc., I see arising removed from all plants and other bodies supposed by Lancisius. Wherefore, just as at present it would be acceptable to no botanist to say that parasitic plants, such as lychenes lichens, etc., arise from the elongation of the fibers of the plants upon which they grow, so I judge that it must be pronounced about fungi and agarici bracket fungi, whatever Vallisne-