juts out on one side.
These are the so-called _Torulae_,[E] which give off buds which are
soon transformed into jointed tubes of various diameters, terminating
in rows of sporules, _Penicillium_, or capsules containing numerous
globular seeds, _Aspergillus_ (_sic_).

This is but another mode of stating the same thing as above referred
to by M. Trecul, that certain cells, resembling yeast cells (_Torula_),
are developed spontaneously, and that these ultimately pass through the
form of mould called _Penicillium_ to the more complex _Mucor_ (which
the writer evidently has confounded with _Aspergillus_, unless he
alludes to the ascigerous form of _Aspergillus_, long known as
_Eurotium_). From what is now known of the polymorphism of fungi, there
would be little difficulty in believing that cells resembling yeast
cells would develop into _Penicillium_, as they do in _fact_ in what is
called the "vinegar plant," and that the capsuliferous, or higher
condition of this mould may be a _Mucor_, in which the sporules are
produced in capsules. The difficulty arises earlier, in the supposed
spontaneous origination of yeast cells from molecules, which result from
the peculiar conditions of light, temperature, &c., in which certain
solutions are placed. It would be impossible to review all the
arguments, or tabulate all the experiments, which have been employed
for and against this theory. It could not be passed over in silence,
since it has been one of the stirring questions of the day. The great
problem how to exclude all germs from the solutions experimented
upon, and to keep them excluded, lies at the foundation of the theory.
It must ever, as we think, be matter of doubt that all germs were not
excluded or destroyed, rather than one of belief that forms known to be
developed day by day from germs should under other conditions
originate spontaneously.

Fungi are veritably and unmistakably plants, of a low organization, it
is true, but still plants, developed from germs, somewhat analogous,
but not wholly homologous, to the seeds of higher orders. The process
of fertilization is still obscure, but facts are slowly and gradually
accumulating, so that we may hope at some not very distant period to
comprehend what as yet are little removed from hypotheses. Admitting
that fungi are independent plants, much more complex in their
relations and development than was formerly supposed, it will be
expected that certain forms should be com