On the affinity and difference of Fungi.

It is well known that the Vegetable Kingdom is divided into two most natural sections, Cotyledoneae & Acotyledoneae (Vascular & Cellular) *). To these, taken in the strictest sense, belong the Anandrae a term used by Link to denote plants without stamens of Link **), which are quite diverse due to the lack of a regular cellular context (not to speak of the absence of vessels). By Linnaeus, they are included under the last two Orders of Cryptogamia, Algae & Fungi; but neither he nor anyone else has been able to circumscribe them by external characters. Newer authors have therefore arranged them into several orders, among whom the most acute Link excels.

However, just as nature herself divided the Cotyledoneae into two series (Monocotyledoneae & Dicotyledoneae), so too does the Linnaean division seem to indicate the most natural series of the Anandrae, though its rationale has not been exposed. Even if they were divided into more Orders, they would be distinguished with difficulty from external characters, unless you were to join Algae & Mucedines molds, Lichen Conithalami lichens with powdery spores & Coniomycetes fungi with dust-like spores, Lich. Pyrenothalami lichens with flask-shaped fruit bodies & Pyrenomycetes flask fungi, etc., which I, at least, would never approve. What I have brought up above proves that strict external characters do not exist between the higher sections ***).

) See the Introduction to the System of Vegetables and the general sections in the excellent work: Regni Vegetabilis Systema Naturale* [Natural System of the Vegetable Kingdom]. By Decandolle, Vol. I.

**) Berlin Magazin der Naturforschung, 1808.

***) Such also are Algae & Fungi. Since nature is most multiplied in the lowest forms, I conclude that the Anandrae plants, taken together, exceed the rest in number. Regarding fungi, this is deduced a priori; but I will illustrate this relationship with an example. The Femsjö region, in a space of barely half a square mile, harbors 420 phanerogams [flowering plants], among which many (about 100) are newcomers to a more recent age; Lichens & Algae [number] 430; Fungi 2000 & beyond. — It is conjectured that there are fewer cryptogams in the tropics, but for my part, I do not see sufficient reasons for this. Even there, the number of Fungi must increase where the rest of the plants have increased.