18B7-88.] Fungus Folk-Lore. 179 



it the Devil's cushion. The Eomans compared it to the food 

 of the gods; and in Holland it is called Devil's bread, 

 from a superstitious belief that that individual gets the best of 

 everything in this world. 



Among the group popularly called Sapballs, the best known 

 is the Dry-rot. This name originated from its converting the 

 wood which it attacks into a dry powdery mass. Dr Prior, 

 however, thinks that the name is more probably derived from 

 tree, wood — A.S. trcoio — and rot. Like the fairy rings, a great 

 many strange reasons have been assigned as the cause of the 

 dry-rot in timber. It was supposed to be caused by a plant 

 like the vine, and wherever this fell plant touched it poisoned 

 the wood, and hydra-like sprouted when deemed dead. Last 

 century a writer stated that he had seen the leaves growing on 

 the plant. " They appear," he said, " dead for many years, and 

 some crumble into dust, but fresh wood attracts a fresh growth 

 from the root." In the 'Gentleman's Magazine' last century it 

 was seriously asserted by a correspondent that dry-rot was the 

 Jewish leprosy in houses ; and another held that it was the 

 result of putrefactive fermentation. A well-known species of 

 this group, and much esteemed as a food on the Continent, is 

 the Vegetable beef-steak, so called from a supposed resemblance 

 to a piece of fresh beef. It has other popular names, such as 

 Liver of the oak. Ox-tongue, or simply Tongue. It is so like 

 a tongue in shape and general appearance, that in the days of 

 enchanted trees it was never cut ofif for fear the knight to 

 whom it belonged should afterwards come to claim it. A 

 species which attacks the Canadian pines is an object of some 

 curious beliefs among the Indians of Lake Huron. They 

 believe that it lives and cries like a child, that it bleeds when 

 wounded, and does not fall unless killed. The famous Fungus- 

 stone, Pictra fungaia, of Italy, is regarded by the N'eapoli- 

 tans with superstitious wonder. Parkinson quaintly describes 

 it as growing naturally among certain stones in ITaples, and 

 that the stones being digged up and conveyed to Eome, where 

 they set them in their wine-cellars, covering them with a little 

 earth and sprinkling a little warm water thereon, mushrooms 

 are produced within four days. The stone is simply a ball of 

 hardened earth impregnated with the spawn of Polyporus 

 tuberaster. Another much-prized Continental species has the 



