PROPERTIES OF CR YPTOaA'\[IC PLAXTS- i7 



Oedek III. FUXGI {The Musliroom Trihe) 



Plants consisting of cells and filjers, " always springing from 

 organized and, generally, decaying substances, not perfected 

 when immersed in water, bearing reproductive sporidea." Fungi 

 occur of all colors, except pure green. 



" Their qualities," remarks Mr. Berkeley, " are various ; many 

 are used very extensively as articles of food ; a few are endowed 

 with valuable medicinal properties ; numbers are highly poison- 

 ous ; and the ravages of several in dock-yards, corn-fields, orchards, 

 &c. are incalculable. A few possess the remarkable j)roperty of 

 exhaling hydrogen gas. Some, however, exhale carbonic acid 

 gas, and inhale oxygen." Fries discovered 2,000 species within 

 the compass of a square furlong, in Sweden. 



Mr. Berkley, in his valuable description, says of the properties of 

 this important order, that — ^" In this country (England) Fungi are 

 so generally objects of prejudice and disgust, that their real import- 

 ance, as useful productions, is little appreciated. With the excep- 

 tion of the common musJiroom, scarcely a single species of agaric 

 is in general accurately distinguished ; and though many speak of 

 another kind, under the name of champignon, there are few per- 

 sons who know what to gather ; and the fatal mistakes which have 

 in consequence been made, have increased the disinclination to 

 any but the mushroom. In many portions of Europe, but espec- 

 ially Poland and Pussia, they form a most important part of the 

 food of the common people ; and in the latter country whole tribes 

 are mainly supported by them, scarcely any species, except the 

 dung and the fly agarics, being rejected. Even those kinds which 

 are elsewhere refused by common consent, as poisonous on ac- 

 count of their extreme acridity, are taken with impunity, being 

 extensively dried o» pickled in salt or vinegar for winter use. It 

 is probable that this harmlessness arises from the particular mode 

 of preparation ; for from the exact account of Pallas, and the gen- 

 eral diffusion of various species in various countries, there is no 

 reason to doubt the fact that sorts justly esteemed 2)oisonous are 

 really used ; and it is Avell known that the noxious qualities of 

 that most virulent species, Agaricus vermis, are communicated to 

 brine, vinegar, &c., and that the Olive-tree agaric loses all its poi- 

 sonous properties when salted, and becomes eatable. The pickle 

 is, probably, in general thrown away ; while as to dried fungi, I 

 have been informed by a gentlemen of great acuteness and obser- 



