254 NATURAL HISTORY, 



these fungi, he said, though he showed a tiny toad which he had found sitting 

 on one of the Agarici exhibited. The toads, he eaid, found not only a stool 

 to Bit on, but also a table where they could find their food, as there were- 

 numerous earth-worms crawling on the adjacent Polypori. The fungus known 

 to the natives of the country as Phanasamba was a polyporus, and used as 

 a medicinal agent. The Puffball, known as Bhodiphod or Bhopud (t. e., "Cleaver 

 of the soil"), and scientifically known as a variety of Lycoperdon, was, he said, 

 considered a delicacy when propeily seasoned and cooked fresh from the field* 

 It appeared on the first fall of the rains in the monsoons. The true mushroom 

 which is sold in the English markets as Agaricus campeatris, is also found 

 in this country abundantly, but it is yet too early to find the same just now^ 

 It must however be admitted tbafc several pounds of much nutritious food 

 are thrown away as useless on account of want of proper knowledge of the 

 various classes of edible and poisonous fungi. It is not everybody that can 

 relish the musty smell of the varied members of the Fungal tribe, nor is it that 

 the delicacies will always agree with the inner man. But there is hardly any 

 doubt that every student of Nature will find immense delight in scanning the 

 minute threads and spores, and the mycelium or spawn that go to build up the 

 delicate- structure of the*e cellular plants. It is not from the gastronomic point 

 ©f view that he discoursed, he said, on the fungi, nor was it that he wanted to tell 

 whether this or that mushroom was edible or poisonous, and whether it would 

 do credit to a generous and hospitable host to place before his guest at dinner 

 Indian mushroom toast or stewed or curried toadstools a Id Indienne t Nor did 

 he pretend, he said, to initate an energetic mercantile firm into the mysteries of 

 fungus-trade, and encourage a body of speculators to bottle up a few edible 

 varieties and Bend them to Crosse aud Blackwell to try their fate in an English 

 market. All he urged on that evening on behalf of those interesting objects 

 In nature which lie unnoticed was that they had an everlasting interest to 

 the student of Science, aud if by such occasional display of fungi the Natural 

 History Society of Bombay encouraged the study of an unexplored field, the 

 Society will have accomplished one of its principal objects. To the student of 

 Medicine the fungi have a special interest, now that fresh accessions are being 

 daily made to our already vast knowledge of bacilli. A thorough acquaintance 

 with their life, history, and their surroundings, and an acquaintance with their 

 habits and functions, are essential before we determine whether they are the 

 cause of disease, concomitants of it, or the mere harmless results of it as any 

 other objects in nature. Fungi of the minutest kind have been known to exist 

 on other larger fungi, apparently not affecting their host with disease or causing 

 its death. Why should not bacilli exist in man without causing disease ? All 

 this has to be known. It was not his intention however, he said, to enter on 

 a medical disquisition, but that he touched the subject incidentally. He then 

 showed from amongst the specimens of fungi some of the typical Agarics, 

 several polypoid beautifully tinted, a beautiful golden yellow-spiked Hydnum, 

 the gelatinous ear-like Auricularia, soma needle-like Claviarei, thus illustiating 

 one of the important divisions of fungi known as the Hymenomycetes, so called 

 from their possessing tha hymenium or fruit-bearing, or rather spore-bearing, 

 sur f ace exposed to the air. 



