434 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



pose to state that every plant is subject to their attacks, and that 

 their presence even is often unsuspected, as in the case of the 

 potato rot, the cause of which was everywhere sought in vain for 

 many years, until at last Mr. Berkeley, the celebrated botanist of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society in London, demonstrated that a 

 microscopic fungus was the undoubted source of the terrible evil. 

 " Where the carcass is, there the eagles are gathered together," 

 and it has been discovered that the potato plant, weakened by the 

 assault of its principal enemy, is subsequently attacked by no less 

 than ten different fungi. More than thirty species are parasitic- 

 upon the grasses, which are infested by them, wherever cultivated, 

 the sorghum and cane of the tropics, as well as the oats and bar- 

 ley of the North. The coffee- tree, the orange, the olive, and the 

 mulberry suffer under the attacks of various blights, which, 

 obstructing the cells and stomata of the foliage, induce disease 

 and the failure of the looked-for crop. Even the silkworm has 

 become the victim of a fungus, to eradicate which millions of dol- 

 lars have been sent to Japan and China for the purchase of healthy 

 eggs, which are annually imported into Southern Europe. Thus 

 the knowledge of the origin of the disease has led to the finding 

 of a remedy, without which one of the great industries of France 

 and Italy must have perished. Still more impressive is the fact 

 that epidemic and contagious diseases among men and animals are 

 usually accompanied by the growth of microscopic fungi on or 

 within the bodies diseased, which are often the cause of great 

 discomfort, and sometimes of death. 



The argument in favor of botanical studies might be still further 

 strengthened by allusion to the useful qualities of some of the 

 larger species of fungus. The chemical composition of these 

 remarkable plants is very peculiar, and resembles that of animal 

 fibre. Though the majority of them are exceedingly poisonous, 

 yet more than one hundred species are used for food. The savages 

 of Tierra del Fuego and New Zealand rely upon them as staple 

 articles of diet, and in all parts of Europe they are regarded as 

 delicious luxuries. In London, dried truffles are worth five dollars 

 per pound, and other edible fungi are sold at high prices ; and the 

 demand generally exceeds the supply. In Paris, also, immense 

 sums are expended for them, and, in 18G7, there was one cultiva- 

 tor of common mushrooms who had twenty-one miles of bods, 

 twenty inches in width, devoted to this crop in the subterranean 

 passages of the catacombs beneath the city. It is evident, there- 



