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OUTLINES OF BRITISH FUNGOLOGY.

for the present the consideration of this influence, I shallsimply indicate some of the peculiar situations in which Fungiare occasionally found.

Amongst the higher Fungi, the Coprini (Plate 12, fig. 1),and those species of Agaricus, as for example A. disseminatus,which are most nearly allied to them, are most capricious intheir habitats. Old damp carpets, naked walls, pestilentialdrains entirely concealed from sight, and other anomaloussituations, are amongst those in which they assume an occa-sional habitat, their proper place for the most part beingdecayed wood, or the dung of graminivorous animals, whichclosely resembles it in the Fungi which it nourishes. As theCoprini are amongst the most rapid in their growth of anyFungi, as every one knows who has watched their progress ina new liot-bed, they sometimes appear in the most unexpectedsituations. It is, for instance, not very uncommon to findthem on the dressings of amputated limbs, and surgeons arein consequence sometimes very unjustly charged with negli-gence by persons who are not acquainted with the speed withwhich a Coprinus may pass through every stage of growthfrom the spore to the perfect pileus. Where these plants—as, for example, Coprinus radiatus and Agaricus disseminatus—are developed on bare walls, they throw out an enormousquantity of mycelium, in order to avail themselves as much aspossible of the moisture of the surrounding air.

Though Fungi cannot exist without a certain degree ofmoisture, they suffer in general from its excess. A few spe-cies, however, are never found except on substances immersedin water. The beautiful scarlet Mitrula paludosa, which isthe ornament in summer of every little quiescent drain insome parts of Wales, uniformly grows on leaves or otherdecayed vegetable matter floating in water, while Vibrissea