CHAPTER IV. 



On the Economic Use of Fungi. 



Fungi are, as a class, of greater economic value than any other of 

 the Cryptogamia. The chief use of them, however, is alimentary. 

 The essential principles of one or two have made them useful in 

 medicine. Of these Ergot is the best example. The value and 

 utility of Yeast is well known, and an analogous fermenting agent 

 is found in another Fungus, the so-called " vinegar-plant." Some 

 kinds have been utilized as dyes. Several of the large Polypores 

 were formerly much used in the preparation of Amadou, or 

 " German tinder " ; and their prepared fibrous substance forms 

 an article like soft leather, which has been used in sundry ways. 

 Probably chemistry has yet to reveal many fungoid principles that 

 can be rendered serviceable. 



But these uses are trifling compared with the employment of 

 Fungi as articles of food. A great many species are wholesome, 

 extremely nutritive, and more or less palatable. Sundry kinds of 

 the larger Fungi — Mushrooms — have been used among the an- 

 cients ; and there does not appear to be any nation, civilized or 

 savage, among whom some species are not recognised articles of 

 diet. While the gTeater number have been principally made use 

 of by the peasantry, other kinds have been esteemed as delicacies 

 by the rich, and some of these have therefore become of com- 

 mercial importance. Among these latter is the large orange- 

 yellow Amanita Csesarea, called by the French the Oronge. This 

 mushroom is greatly esteemed on the Continent at this day. 

 It was considered the best of dainties by the epicures of imperial 

 Rome. They imported it from Gaul and Germany, and it is the 

 only mushroom out of sundry eaten by them of which they have 

 left us a description we can recognise. Other kinds that were in 

 use during classic and medieval times cannot now be precisely 

 identified, since no clear descriptions of them have reached us. 



Now-a-days an immense bulk of mushrooms, comprising a 



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