delay, as the tortured investigator, with burning | apparently, kid-skin, smooth and soft; and some lips and fauces, and tearful eyes, seeks in vain for take, for instance, the truffle-are covered over alleviation. If not swallowed, however, the ef- with tubercles. fect shortly subsides." Upon yews and plumb- Perhaps, to the unlearned in fungal history, trees, in the summer-time, may often be seen a nothing will appear more singular than what we fungus which has all the aspect of a mass of sul-are about to state, as to the consistence of these phur. Another, as common among the sweet plants. So accustomed are we to take our genturf as can be, though a minute fungus, boasts eral impressions of the characters of a natural a glorious garb of orange and blood-red. High family from those of a well-known type, that it up in young oaks, in September, may be seen the "liver of the oak”—a fungal as near like the human tongue as can well be imagined, and hence termed by M. Paulet an eloquent tongue, proclaiming its own excellence, and inviting the passenger to eat it. Says Dr. Badham, "It is so like a tongue in shape and general appearance, that in the days of enchanted trees, you would not have cut it off to pickle, or to eat on any account, lest the knight to whom it belonged should afterwards come to claim it of you." But the doctor forgets that such an unhappy victim of mycological research would not be able to make his demand saving in dumb show! "The surface is rough with elevated papillæ; the structure fibrous; the flesh softly elastic; the color bright red, looking like the tongue in the worst forms of gastro-enteritis !" As to shape, what geometry shall succeed in defining their ever-varying outlines? Some are simple threads, like the Byssus, and never get beyond this; some shoot out into branches, like seaweed; some puff themselves out into puff-balls; some thrust their heads into mitres; these assume the shape of a cup; and those of a wine-funnel; some, like Ag. mammorus, have a teat; others, like the Ag. Clypeolarius, are umbonated at their centre; these are stilted upon a high leg, and those have not a leg to stand upon; some are shellshaped, many bell-shaped; and some hang upon their stalks like a lawyer's wig; some assume the form of a horse's hoof; others of a goat's beard; in the Clathrus cancellatus you look into the fungus through a thick red trellis, which surrounds it. Some exhibit a nest, in which they rear their young; and not to speak of those vague shapes, If shapes they can be called, that shape have none of such tree-parasites as are fain to mould them- As to surface, fungals still exhibit the same variety which marks their coloring and form. Some, to use Mrs. Hussey's expression, look like a nest of serpents, peeping forth from the trees on which they flourish in all their scaly horrors. Others are spangled, as if with particles of broken glass. Some have a delicate feathery aspect, comparable to nothing so nearly as to the parasols of feathers, which appear in Eastern grandeurs. Some again are zoned with concentric circles, of different hues; some are clothed in a garb of, But becomes a constant source of surprise to us to dis- Neither have all fungals the characteristic odor and savor of the mushroom. The Agaricus alliaceus might cheat us into the belief that onions were at hand. The mucors have their own mouldy smell. Others, called by the anise-loving Linnæus suave-olens, diffuse a powerful scent of that cordial; thus leading the polite reader to form no very refined notions of the great naturalist's olfactory sensibilities. The Agaricus cinnamoneus, in color, and powerfully in odor, mimics the finest cinnamon. The Boletus salicinus has the reputation of smelling like sweet may-bloom. The Chanterelle and the odorous Agaric are perfumed like apricots and ratafia. But, alas! many are of a positively nauseous and disgusting smell. The Phallus impudicus cannot be borne in the room, even for a few minutes. Dr. Badham tells us of an unlucky botanist who had, by mistake, taken it into his bed-room, and soon became awakened by the intolerable fœtor it diffused around; so that he was glad to open the window and get rid of it, as he hoped, and the Phallus, together; here he was disappointed—“ sublatâ causâ non tollitur effectus"-the fœtor remaining nearly the same for some hours afterwards. A lady, who was drawing one in a room, was obliged to take it into the open air to complete her sketch. A fungus called the Clathrus becomes insupportably offensive in a short time, and its infective stench has given rise to a superstition entertained of it throughout the Landes, that it has the prop erty of producing cancer in those who touch it; in consequence of which the inhabitants, who call it cancrou; or cancer, cover it carefully over, lest by accident some chance to touch it, and thus become infected with that horrible disease. with gems of radiance. The light arising from a large number of them becomes almost dazzling to gaze upon. Might not these fungi be introduced into our mines with advantage? The spawn of the truffle is luminous, and is thus sometimes discovered with great readiness. The olive-groves of Italy are sometimes seen to be dimly illuminated with a phophorescent agaric; and Rumphius, in Amboyna, and Mr. Drummond, at the Swan River, speak of similar phenomena. The light produced by these various species of plants is probably due, as in ordinary cases of phosphorescence, simply to the oxidation of a vegetable product containing We shall speak of the variances of fungal savor when we advert to them as articles of diet; but it may be here mentioned, that they are as many as those of form, color, consistence, and odor. Some are as fierce as fire in this respect. Capsicums are cool in comparison therewith. Mrs. Hussey tells of a young man, who, in spite of caution, insisted on tasting one species with the tip of his tongue-instantly he darted off, in a phosphorus. course apparently so objectless as to give painful doubts of his sanity, and was found ten minutes afterwards, his face half immersed in a brook which he had descried in the distance, vainly striving to cool the unquenchable flame communicated by the fungal to his tongue. All the varieties of the flavors understood by us under the terms sweet, sour, rich, rank, and acrid-many are quite without appreciable flavor of any kind. It is a remarkable fact that some fungi are phosphorescent. Mr. Gardner relates the following interesting circumstance in connection with this fact. “One dark night, about the beginning of December, while passing along the streets of the Villa de Natividade, I observed some boys amusing themselves with some luminous object, which I at first supposed to be a kind of large fire-fly; but, on making inquiry, I was told that it grew abundantly in the neighborhood on the decaying leaves of a dwarf palm. Next day I obtained a great many specimens, and found them to vary from one to two and a half inches across. The whole plant gives out at night a bright phosphorescent light, of a pale greenish hue, similar to that emitted by the larger fire-flies, or by those curious soft-bodied marine animals, the Pyrosome; from this circumstance, and from growing on a palm, it is called by the inhabitants the flor do coco.' The light given out by a few of these fungi in a dark room was sufficient to read by. It proved to be quite a new species, and, since my return from Brazil, has been described by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley under the name of Agaricus Gardneri, from preserved specimens which I brought home." In the coal-mines near Dresden are fungi of another species, which are a safer source of light even than the safety-lamp of the illustrious Davy. These fungi belong to the singular genus Rhizomorpha. A paper in a scientific periodical, published some years since, furnishes a good account of the curious effect produced by these plants in these otherwise dark and dreary excavations. The visitor has no need of artificial illumination-the sides and roof of the black tunnels glow with pale stars of light, which fill the abyss with a soft diffusive lustre, and create the belief that some enchanting power has locked us in a fairy palace, whose walls glitter *Travels in the Interior of Brazil. 1846. That mushrooms come up suddenly, as in a night, is a popular aphorism, older than we dare state; and certain it is, that in the rapidity, power, and size of their growth, they are wonderful plants. At the seasons of warm rains in summer, puff-balls will grow with amazing rapidity. Particularly during electrical disturbances of the atmosphere, the fungi will sometimes spring up with a swiftness of growth akin to the marvellons. Perhaps their expansive powers in growing are even more remarkable. In the "Elements of Physiology," by Dr. Carpenter, a curious instance of the immense force of an expanding fungus is related :— "In the neighborhood of Basingstoke, a pavingstone, measuring twenty-one inches square, and weighing eighty-three pounds, was completely raised an inch and a half out of its bed by a mass of toadstools of from six to seven inches in diameter; and nearly the whole pavement of the town suffered displacement from the same cause!" Dr. Badham says :—“I have myself recently witnessed an extensive displacement of the pegs of a wooden pavement, which had been driven nine inches into the ground, but were heaved up irregularly in several places by small bouquets of agarics, growing from below." on placing a Phallus impudicus within a glass vessel, the plant expanded so rapidly as to shiver its sides with an explosive detonation, as loud as that of a pistol. Of all vegetable structures, we should least expect such singular results from the expansion of the generally soft and fragile plants under consideration. We are taught by them an impressive lesson of the invincible power of the feeblest causes when their operation is constant. M. Bulliard relates, that Strange things are told as to fungal dimensions. Some, as we have observed, are invisible to the unassisted eye, floating perhaps in the vital air we inhale; but the dimensions of others we dare scarcely venture to state, and, making the venture, we shall only do so under the shelter of authorities. The family of the puff-balls is the most prolific in the production of giant fungi. Although their usual size is small, not exceeding that of an egg, Mrs. Hussey has figured one which fully justifies, without, as she declares, the smallest help of the pencil, the description conveyed under the Greek term xguviov, from its striking resemblance in point of form and dimensions to the human skull. The nasal prominence and the frontal eminences, with the suture between them, are well mimicked out, and the animal motion was then so strong as in this curious fungus. This accomplished mycolo- to turn the head half-way round, first one way, gist states, that the specimen was found growing and then another, and two or three times it got out among some felled timber, and in a most confined of the focus. Almost every fibre had a different space, attaining the dimensions of a half-peck loaf. motion-some of them twined round one another, The environs of Padua produce, as it is said by and then untwined again, while others were bendCicinelli, enormous puff-balls, measuring two feet ing, extending, coiling, waving, &c." These in diameter! Mr. Berkeley, whose opinions on movements may have been simply hygrometric. fungal history are sterling among botanists, quotes Other authors have entertained doubts of fungals the case of a fungus which in three weeks grew to being more than mere accidental developments of seven feet five inches in circumference, and weighed vegetable tissue, called into action by special conthirty-four pounds! Baptist Perta speaks of a ditions of light, heat, soil, and air. These doubts, fungus which in a few days attained a weight of to quote the thoughtful observations of Mr. Berketwelve pounds, and was too large to be embraced ley, have been caused by some remarkable cirby both the hands. Mr. Angus informs us, that cumstances connected with their development, the in the woods of New Zealand large funguses stand most material of which are the following:-"They out from the parent trees so boldly and rigidly as grow with a degree of rapidity unknown in other to make commodious seats! But the giant fungus plants, acquiring the volume of many inches in the of all is one whose dimensions come down to pos- space of a night, and are frequently meteoric; terity on the authority of Clusius. This monstrous that is, springing up after storms, or only in parplant grew in Pannonia, was discovered by a ticular states of the atmosphere. It is possible fungus-loving family, who all partook of it until to increase particular species with certainty by an they could eat no more, and there remained behind ascertained mixture of organic and inorganic enough to fill a chariot! In the deep recesses of materials exposed to well-known atmospheric conwoods, and elsewhere, where suffered to grow ditions, as is formed by the process adopted by unmolested, the mycological traveller may often gardeners for obtaining Agaricus campestris—a stumble upon specimens whose enormous dimen- process so certain, that no one ever knew any other sions take away much of the apparent improbability kind of agaric produced in mushroom-beds, except from the last-quoted anecdote. The vis medicatrix a few of the dunghill tribe, where raw dung has naturæ, on which so much ink-shed has taken been placed near the surface of the bed. This place, is remarkably exercised in the case of the could not happen if the mushroom sprang from fungi. Let a snail come and take his morning seeds floating in the air, as in that case many meal out of the summit of a splendid boletus, this species would naturally be mixed together. Fungi power, be it what it may, immediately directs the are produced constantly upon the same kind of refilling of the cavity, and it is speedily accom- matter, and upon nothing else, such as the species plished in such a manner as to render the injury al-that are parasitic upon leaves; all which is conmost imperceptible. This power, of course, greatly sidered strong evidence of the production of fungi tends to the preservation of the individual, and thus being accidental, and not analogous to that of indirectly contributes to its vast enlargement in size. perfect plants." Such, however, is far from the Those who have given most thought to mycology conviction of our own minds upon the subject. are still in a position of painful uncertainty, strange M. Dutrochet has instituted some curious experito say, as to the real nature of fungi! Will it be ments which may be quoted; he found that he believed it is even questioned whether they be could obtain at pleasure different species of mouldplants at all; whether, in fact, they do not belong iness by using different infusions; he also states to some kingdom intermediate between plants and that certain acid fluids constantly yield monilias, animals. And, certainly, if the extraordinary and and that certain alkaline mixtures produce botrytis. life-like movements observed in the fibres of some What is the conclusion to be drawn from these species, such as those described in the next sen- facts? That the fungi are mere metamorphoses tence, were a fair argument for such a theory, its of ordinary cellular tissue, without law of genus supporters are not far from the truth; but, un- or species? Scarcely so. May we not rather fortunately for their idea, equally striking move- bear in profitable recollection the recent discoveries ments exist in many higher plants than fungi, of natural chemistry upon the mineral ingredients upon whose vegetable nature no question can be peculiar to each plant? When we mix up our entertained. The following movements are de- compost for mushrooms, what is it that we do but scribed in the words of their observer, Mr. Robson, bring together, it may be, those mineral ingredients who noticed their occurrence in the fibres of the most favorable to the development of mushrooms fungus called the Clathrus. "At first," he says, from spores already floating in the air, or existing "I was much surprised to see a part of the fibres hitherto unquickened in the soil? Why does the that had got through a rupture in the top of the botrytis select an alkaline bed, if it be not that the Clathrus moving like the legs of a fly, when laid alkali is most favorable to its development? upon his back; I then touched it with the point Wheat will not grow in a soil destitute of of a pin, and was still more surprised when I saw siliceous matter, alkalies, and nitrogen; yet other it present the appearance of a little bundle of plants will grow there, and perhaps exclusively. worms entangled together, the fibres being all We are not, therefore, to attach much weight to alive; I next took the little bundle of fibres quite an argument drawn from the, at first sight, striking fact, that by a mixture of certain well-known ingredients we can produce mushrooms, and that, consequently, they are mercly chance developments arising out of the union of certain substances. Such a conclusion is altogether unsound. It is now well known that plants have a sort of individual bill of fare upon which, and which alone, they will thrive. It appears, therefore, more probable to suppose that the seeds, it may be, of several species of fungi exist in such substances as we mix together; but the peculiar character of the mixture is favorable to the development only of one species-the common mushroom, the seeds of the others still lying dormant; rather than to suppose that they arise from no seminal germs, but, as it were, by an accident, which must be allowed to be constant in its occurrence. It is more in accordance with the principles of science to believe that the monilia of an acid liquid was developed from a spore which found in it the suitable pabulum it required, than to imagine that the monilia is the offspring of some inexplicable process of equivocal generation, which can only take place in an acid fluid. This is not the place to pursue the discussion; and, at the risk of being thought tedious, we have followed it thus far only because the argument of spontaneous generation appears in some danger of being revived in the case of these plants. Altogether, however, it must be acknowledged that the subject is a very difficult one; the more learned the mycologist, the greater his perplexity. and as often as I repeated the experiment, a ready supply of excellent mushrooms, which came up from a month to six weeks after the dung had been so disposed of; but as an equable temperature is in all cases desirable, to render the result certain, where this cannot be secured under the protection of glass, the next best plan is to scatter a portion of the above dungs, mixed with a little earth, in a cave or cellar, to which some tan is an excellent addition; for tan, though it kills other vegetable growths, has quite an opposite effect on funguses. -Esculent Funguses, p. 42. It has been recommended to throw the water in which fungi have been washed over a suitable spot, and the result is stated to be a good crop of the same species. In the Landes, on the authority of Dr. Thore, we are informed that the inhabitants are constantly successful in rearing the fungi called Boletus edulis Agaricus procerus, from a watery infusion of the said plants. But Dr. Badham, who carefully experimented upon the subject, was wholly unable to produce the same results; and other high authorities are given, where experiments proved equally vain. Perhaps the most singular mode of producing funguses artificially is one which is largely resorted to by the Italian people. The fungus in this case is actually produced by a stone! This stone is called the Pietra funghaia. Cesalpinus has given directions for procuring it the whole year through, which, he says, is to be done either by irrigating the soil over the site of the stone, or by transferring the Pietra funghaia with a portion Dr. Badham is disposed to consider the origin of the original mould, and watering it in our own of fungals from seed, as in other plants; and that, garden. Porter adds, that the funguses take seven further, the seed is in most cases furnished by, or days to come to perfection, and may be gathered at least, latent in, the nidus in which they are de- from the naked block, if it is properly moistened, veloped. Although the theory he advocates is six times a year; but, in preference to merely defended with spirit, and although it is certain watering the blocks, he recommends that a light that fungi actually occur in closed fruits, and in covering of garden mould should be first thrown corollas of flowers when they are sealed up in air-over them. This fungus-producing stone has a tight envelopes, it may still be fairly questioned very limited range of territory, and lies imbedded whether the atmosphere does not, in a very large number of cases, waft the light sporules to their birth-place, where they become quickened into life by the usual forces. From this subject, which may not appear to all our readers in the interesting and important light, and in the attractive garb, it possesses for some, we may appropriately turn to the consideration of a curious part of fungal history-their artificial production. The common mushroom is cultivated to a very large extent for the supply of our markets, and its production is as certainly insured by the methods resorted to, as in the ordinary case of plants produced from seed. The following plan, by M. Roques, is recommended by its simplicity, and is said to be infallible :— Having observed that all those dunghills which abounded chiefly in sheep or cow droppings, began shortly to turn mouldy on their surface, and to bear mushrooms, I collected a quantity of this manure, which, as soon as it began to turn white, I strewed lightly over some melon-beds, and some spring crops of vegetables, and obtained in either case, frequently in a variety of soils, in consequence of which its fungus is very variable in flavor, much depending upon the kind of humus in which its matrix happens to be placed. Those that grow on the high grounds above Sorrento, and on the sides of Vesuvius, are in less esteem among the mycophagous Italians than such as are brought into the Naples market from the mountains of Apulia; most probably the spores of the fungus in question are actually contained in the porous upper surface of the stone, merely requiring heat and moisture for their development into life. How many of the poetical dreams of our childhood are destroyed with the advance of this cold, unspiritualizing age! No longer let the reader, as he trips homeward in the dewy evening, when the shadows of night come creeping over hill and valley, hold his breath at passing a bright and luxuriant "Fairy Ring," in the meadow. No longer let him fear to put foot within its green circle, nor tremble at the consequences of disturbing "the good people" in their night-dances around on those once mysterious plots of grass. Mycological science comes, and with her steady finger, picks out a half-dozen agarics, and accuses them of thus marking out Nature's green carpet into irregular circles. Nor have they anything to say against it. But more soberly To recapitulate the various fancies recorded on the subject of" Fairy Rings" would be a waste of time and paper. The fact that Agaricus orcades appears shortly after thunder-storms, gives rise to an opinion that the withered grass of its circles was lightning-blasted; and in Captain Brown's notes to White's " Selborne," he quotes Mr. Johnson, of Wetherby, a correspondent of the "Philosophical Journal," to this effect :-" He attributes them to the droppings of starlings, which, when in large flights, frequently alight upon the ground in circles, and sometimes are known to sit a considerable time in these annular congregations!" If philosophy had but condescended to use a spade, the truth would then have been scented at least, for the earth beneath these bare rings is white with the spawn of the agaric causing them, and the peculiar smell either of Agaricus orcades or Agaricus Georgii is detected instantly; in fact, it is many times more potent than that of the fungus itself.—British Mycology, part xiii. 66 Fairy Rings" are of various sizes; some are as small as to possess a diameter of only a foot or so, others have a circumference of ninety or a hundred feet. The phenomenon has long puzzled botanists, and although it is better understood now than formerly, it must be confessed that we are still in great ignorance about it. We must not be misunderstood. Let it be distinctly stated, there is not the least doubt in the minds of those who have paid the smallest attention to the subject that the cause of fairy rings is to be found in the fungi which people them-the difficulty is to account for the peculiar mode of growth which they thus adopt the form of a circle, often of the truest mathematical proportions. It is commonly accounted for by supposing that the seeds of the fungi are shed at first in a circular form, and that the plants progressively enlarge, retaining the same form, by projecting their seeds to a certain distance all round. Considered as an article of diet, fungi assume an importance which has hitherto never been conceded to them in this country, and which indeed it is the main object of the work before us to advocate. From statistical details, which will be mentioned further on, it is rendered positively certain that a very large source of income and sustenance is annually left to exhaust itself in vain in our woods and meadows. And while we are anxious to lay down such restrictions as shall confine the use of fungi within the limits of safety, we are equally anxious to obtain for Dr. Badham a fair hearing on this interesting and important topic. While it is certain that a large number of serious, and even fatal, accidents have taken place from the consumption of deleterious fungi, it is equally certain that the popular prejudice against them ranges far, very far, beyond the boundaries of truth, and that a large number now condemned to decay unused, or even abhorred and despised, are as useful for the purposes of the table as those which enjoy the prescriptive privilege of appearing there. The rule which appears to have influenced us has been the safe, but unphilosophical, one of rather condemning many innocent fungi than run the risk of one injurious species finding its way to the larder. It is very certain a large number of eminent names might be set down on the other side, and those of men who are themselves, in very truth, practisers of the mycophagus doctrines they uphold. M. Roques, a French writer on the fungi, and an advocate for their introduction to a wider range of utility, with the enthusiasm of his nation, gives at the end of his treatise a long list of his mycophilous friends, including in the number many of the most eminent medical men of Paris. Another writer tells us, that in seeing the peasants at Nuremburg eating raw mushrooms, he too, for several weeks, determined to follow their example, and, with a greater degree of self-denial than can be safely recommended to other and more delicate lovers of the fungi, restricted himself entirely to this diet for several weeks. He ate with them nothing but bread, and drank nothing but water, and the odd result of this bold experiment was, that instead of finding his health impaired and his strength diminished, he came out of his period of discipline stronger and better than before. In winter and spring these circles exhibit a luxuriant growth of grass of the most brilliant and refreshing green. In summer they are seared and dry. It has been on this account considered that the débris of the past year's fungi serves as manure to the grass, which is much quickened and invigorated in growth thereby during those seasons The truth is, the only certain method of diswhen the fungi lie dormant; but when, as in tinguishing them is a proper moderate botanical summer, the fungi are awakened to activity, they acquaintance with their conformation, and characthen are too vigorous for the grass, deprive it ofteristic peculiarities. For those who cannot spare its proper nourishment, and thrive at its expense. Sometimes they become most unsightly, particnlarly when a lady is solicitous of keeping her lawn as smooth and elegant in appearance as her drawing-room carpet. The Society of Arts has offered a prize for the best method of eradicating them. We believe nothing will succeed but digging up the spawn-charged soil all round, and implanting in its place fresh soil and turf free from the same infection. the time for the attainment of such knowledge, we would strongly recommend, as an invaluable companion on a fungus-hunting expedition-presuming of course, that its object is the collection of esculent fungi for the table-this book of Dr. Badham's. So soon as autumn comes and brings the fungi in its train, it is our own intention to put the work under our arm and plunge into the woods the very first opportunity. The admirably executed plates of the work are the chief guide |