or less accurately defined. Splendid and accurate works, illustrative of this Order, have been given to the world by Schæffer, Bulliard and Sowerby, which are the more useful as the generality of fungi cannot well be preserved. The most distinguished writer upon them, indeed the only good systematic one, is Persoon, who has moreover supplied us with some exquisite figures. His Synopsis Methodica Fungorum helps us to the following arrangement.
1. Angiocarpi, such as bear seeds internally. These are either hard, like Sphæria, Sowerb. Fung. t. 159, 160; or membranous, tough and leathery, like Lycoperdon, t. 331, 332; Cyathus (Nidularia) t. 28, 29; or Batarrea (Lycoperdon) t. 390.
2. Gymnocarpi, such as bear seeds imbedded in an appropriate, dilated, exposed membrane, denominated hymenium, like Helvella, t. 39, in which that part is smooth and even; Boletus, t. 34, 87, 134, in which it is porous; and the vast genus Agaricus, t. 1, 2, &c., in which it consists of parallel plates called lamellæ, or gills.
