STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 219 



curtains down. Even field crops languish in cloudy weather, when other 

 conditions are best suited to their growth. How different with the fungi ! 

 Mushrooms are splendidly grown in the catacombs of Paris — those under- 

 ground caverns, where darkness perpetually reigns. Moulds luxuriate in 

 the darkest cellar, perfecting their fruit without a ray from the sun's sus- 

 taining disc. 'Thieves and evil-doers excepted, the fungi are the only liv- 

 ing beings that could consistently rejoice over the entire withdrawal of 

 light from the earth. Other plants take from the atmosphere carbonic 

 acid, and restore the oxygen, but fungi, like animals, take oxygen, and 

 pour forth carbonic acid. This fiict alone shows how radically different 

 the principles of nutrition are in the fungous and the other plants. The 

 prime office of vegetation is to build up organic products from inorganic 

 elements, and plants alone possess the power of doing this. Animals con- 

 sume these products, combustion and decay disorganize and reduce them 

 to their original status. But fungi form the exception among plants, and, 

 like these last, are altogether destructive. Incapable of feeding themselves 

 from the inorganic earth and air, they prey upon the elaborated products 

 from these materials, accumulated by their accommodating relatives in 

 the vegetable kingdom. Such are some of the peculiar characteristics of 

 the fungi as a class. Of these there is no question as to their truthful- 

 ness ; but, as indicated above, the disputed point is whether or not any of 

 the fungi are capable of attacking, feeding ui)on, and so perhaps destroy- 

 ing other jjlants previously in healthy, vigorous condition, or, in other 

 words, whether the fungous parasites really cause, and are not the results 

 of, disease. 



I have said the special province of vegetation was to take from the 

 inorganic elements and manufacture the organic. Let it be noted, how- 

 ever, that this implies more than simple chemical combinations. The vital 

 power of the plant, aided by sunlight, rends asunder these combinations, 

 overmasters the usual chemical affinities, and, in sj)ite of their attractions, 

 builds up its tissues. But the moment its life is gone, these affinities 

 again triumph, and decomposition begins. Now, fungi hasten the ruin, 

 apparently lending their life force to augment the power of the natural 

 attractions of the particles for each other, as wolves follow the herds of 

 buffaloes, to make quick work with the lame and weakened ones that linger 

 behind. The vital tbrcc stands guard alone against the destroyers. Is it 

 not likely that it, too, shall at times be defeated ? Remembering that the 

 parasite has, as well as the host, this mysterious endowment of life, may 

 not its forces, in many engagements, sometimes outmarshal those it seeks 

 to destroy and rob of their treasures? Advantages are sei/cd upon, favor- 

 able conditions for the attack are improved, or in equal ordinary combat 

 swift and sure destruction follows the dread onslaught of the parasitic 

 hordes. 



Abundant evidence sup])orts this idea. Numerous well-attested cases 

 are at hand, so that to one who examines carefully, and is prepared to 

 properly estimate the evidence before him, the conclusion is irresistible 

 that the fungi do cause disease in structures, which, but for their attacks, 

 are healthy and vigorous. When weakened by any cause, of course there 



