6 ON THE GENERAL FEATURES OF FUNGI. 



any economic value. Yet there is Yeast, a minute Fungus of the 

 class of Moulds. Its pabulum is fermenting, starchy, and sacchar- 

 ine matter, and its office is to promote the chemical changes known 

 as fermentation. Then there is Ergot, a minute parasite which 

 fastens upon the grain of growing rye. This is a drug of wonder- 

 ful properties, now largely used in medicine. Perhaps others of 

 these minute kinds may be found equally valuable one of these 

 days. 



The larger kinds of Fungi, which we have consented to call 

 Mushrooms generally, make themselves prominently apparent to 

 the most casual observer. At certain seasons they are seen spring- 

 ing up in gardens and by roadsides, in shrubberies and hedgerows, 

 in fields and meadows, among moss and fern, in moorlands and 

 wastes, in woods, copses, plantations, and forests, alike beside the 

 footprints of men and in the depths of the wilderness. They grow 

 upon the ground, upon half-buried roots, on trees living, dying, 

 and dead, on stumps, old posts, dunghills, and amid the debris of 

 decaying vegetation, as well as in the cornfield, the meadow, or 

 the flower-bed. They come up singly, or in little groups, or in 

 rings, or in bunches, clusters, and tufts. Some are of delicate and 

 membranaceous texture, fragile little things. Others are stout and 

 flesh-like. Yet others are leathery, corky, fibrous, or woody in 

 substance. 



Among this vast family of plants, belonging to one class, yet 

 diverse from one another, comprising more than a thousand dis- 

 tinct species indigenous to these islands, there is but one kind that 

 Englishraen condescend to regard with favour. All the rest are 

 lumped together in one sweeping condemnation. They are looked 

 upon as vegetable vermin, only made to be destroyed. No eye can 

 see their beauties ; their office is unknown ; their varieties are not 

 regarded ; they are hardly allowed a place among Nature's lawful 

 children, but are considered soruething abnormal, worthless, and 

 inexplicable. By precept and example children are taught from 

 earliest infancy to despise, loathe, and avoid all kinds of " toad- 

 stools." The individual who desires to engage in the study of 

 them must boldly face a good deal of scorn. He is laughed at for 

 his strange taste among the better classes, and is actually regarded 

 as a sort of idiot among the lower orders. No fad or hobby is 

 esteemed so contemptible as that of the " fungus-hunter " or 

 " toadstool-eater." 



This popular sentiment, which we may coin the word " Fungo- 



