On mildew and fermentation / by A. de Bary.

  • Heinrich Anton de Bary
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On mildew and fermentation / by A. de Bary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/78 page 5
    and these are generally designated altogether by the name of Fungi, although it is not quite correct to do so. We will for the present concede to the popular application, in order to rectify it later. It is not necessary to assure any one who has once be- held the ground of a forest, in a damp autumnal season, that the Fungi exhibit an immense variety of forms and species, and yet the large quantities which present themselves to the cursory glance, are only a few of the whole number, as the greater part of the Fungi are so microscopically small, that they are very difficult to discern, or are indeed scarcely vi- sible to the naked eye. In the present state of our know- ledge, it is not possible to say exactly, how many species of Fungi there are, or how many are known, but when we con- sider, that very many kinds of floriferous plants have at least one Fungus as a parasite or saprophyte, and if we reckon thereto the species which appear elsewhere as well as on floriferous plants, it is no exaggerated estimation, if we place the number of the species of living Fungi on an equality with that of the floriferous plants; viz: about 150,000. Every at- tentive examination further proves, that the greater part of the species of Fungi are not inferior in number to the flori- ferous plants. We can therefore, without fear of error, con- sider, that the vegetation of which we have just spoken, is, at least, equally rich and various as that of the florifarous and chlorophyll, although it is greatly inferior to them in number. Fungi are to be found everywhere; their roots are esta- blished on, between and near those of other plants; there is scarcely a spot in which organic bodies are found, that does not serve as an abode for Fungi. It is to be supposed, as a matter of course, that such a (US)
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image