An History of Fungusses, growing about Halifax (Vols 1-2)

the surface is smooth and plain, or rugged with scales or other inequalities. If rugged, say whether the matter is of the same substance as, and growing from, the pileus, or is of a different substance, adhering to the pileus by means of a glutin Glutin: a viscous, sticky secretion or otherwise, and note the color of these inequalities. If the surface is smooth, note how it feels to the touch: whether clammy or dry; whether like cloth, silk, velvet, leather, vellum, or what else. Note whether it consists of much flesh or not, and of what substance and color it is within; whether soft and fibrous, or hard and brittle; whether it dissolves or withers in decay; and note what mutations of color take place on its surface, from the first appearance above ground to the utter decay of the plant.

The plants which now compose the Order Fungi were formerly supposed to be of equivocal generation, the sport of Nature, the effect of putrefaction, or the brood of Chance. But that they owe their origin to the seeds of a parent plant is now well known, having been proven by MICHELI, in a work entitled Nova Plantarum Genera original: "New Genera of Plants", published at Florence in 1729, in folio, with many excellent figures; by DILLENIUS, in his Catalogus Plantarum circa Gissenfis original: "Catalogue of Plants around Gießen", published at Frankfort in 1719; by GLEDITSCH, in his Methodus Fungorum original: "Method of Fungi", published at Berlin in 1753; by BATTARA, in his Fungorum agri ariminensis Historia original: "History of the Fungi of the Rimini region", printed in quarto at Rimini in 1755; but above all by the ingenious HEDWIG, who in a work entitled Historia Generationes et Fructificationes Plantarum Cryptogamicarum original: "History of the Generation and Fructification of Cryptogamic Plants", printed in quarto at St. Petersburg in 1784, has by means of the microscope proven beyond dispute the existence of stamens and styles, or of male and female organs in these plants, as perfect, regular, and effective in the production of proper seeds as in any other vegetable where they are more obvious to our sight. His observations are illustrated by figures, accurately engraved and colored from his own drawings. See his work, plate 34, 35, 36, 37, and from figure 195 to 214.

Some observations may be made in regard to the constancy of place for the plants of this order. The Agaricus integer, villosus, purpureus, etc., the Boletus luteus and bovinus, the Clathrus nudus and denudatus, I have constantly observed