BOTANY. 047 



stands, the very table round which he gathers his family and friends, and 

 the very couch on which he reposes. While he sleeps, it grows; while he 

 rests, ir advances; while he is at pea '-e wuh all the world, it may be at 

 war with him; and while his "wooden-walls" are calmly riding at anchor, 

 unless he has taken all due precautions, and employed approved preventives, 

 this despicable fungus will prove itself a secret foe, more formidable, perhaps, 

 than the open, hostile array of a mighty nation. Wonderful are the powers 

 of man to subdue nature to his service; wonderful is the mechanical genius 

 of this great nation ; wonderful is the penetrating power of conical bullets 

 and modern shells, but it may not be extravagant to affirm that the littie 

 dry-rot fungus, in its silent ravages, is more wonderful still, more penetrating, 

 and, when once firmly established, more difficult to repel and dislodge. 

 England may smile at an invasion of Frenchmen, but she might well 

 tremble at an invasion of funguses! 



Ireland, indeed, has already trembled at such an invasion, if it be correct 

 to attribute the Potato Murrain to fungous growth. At all events, Mr. 

 Berkeley remarks, " In potatoes affected with the mould which bears so 

 great a part in the production of the Potato Murrain, I have seen instances 

 in which the tissues were almost entirely replaced by the spawn of the 

 fungus. In fact, this spawn attacks the tissues of the plant in almost every 

 direction, being present in the tubers and stems as well as in the leaves. It 

 has a peculiar property of causing speedy decomposition of the tissues with 

 which it comes in contact, and hence induces rapid sometimes inconceiv- 

 ably rapid decay." Nor are the remedies otherwise successful applicable 

 in this case, and, at present, we cannot be said to know anything which 

 effectually checks its progress, although almost numberless plans have been 

 suggested. A formidable host of fungous foes is known under the general 

 names of Smut, Bunt, Mildew, Rust, and Ergot, and the more particular 

 designations of the Hop Mould, the Rose Mildew, and the Vine Mildew. 

 The cultivation of the vine has almost entirely ceased in Madeira from this 

 cause, and it is everywhere precarious. Hundreds of similar foes attack 

 hundreds of other plants, and not only plants but animals, so that a large 

 treatise has been written by Robin illustrative of their effects upon the 

 latter. Certain species of fungi are promoters of diseases, and although it 

 is not probable that they actually originate disease, it is pretty certain that 

 they frequently aggravate it. The influence of others in the promotion of 

 certain cutaneous disorders is now placed beyond all doubt. Insects are 

 probably more injured by particular fungi than other members of the ani- 

 mal kingdom. Some of them attack insects in the pupa or larva state, and, 

 as it is thought, while they are still living. One West Indian species is de- 

 veloped on a perfect wasp, which flies about with its vegetating burden 

 until the latter grows too heavy for it, and weighs it down to death like 

 an overburdened Sinbad. Our author believes this to be fact, upon the 

 authority of one who has had an opportunity of ascertaining the real state 

 of the case. While this species has such a remarkable power of weighing 

 down, others, as the common mushroom, have an equally remarkable power 

 of lifting up, so that it is asserted that large flagstones have been raised by 

 their irresistible increase. 



We have certainly some compensation for this destructive efficacy of the 

 fungi in the circumstance that several of them are edible. If they frequently 

 destroy our food, they mi_rht also frequently contribute to it, if wisely se- 

 lected and pleasantly served. Being highly nitrogenous, we should expect 



