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ON THE LARGER FUNGI OF TREES. 



BY WORTHINGTON G. SMITH, Esq., F.L.S. 



The Fungi which grow upon trees are perhaps the most unfortunate of 

 their tribe, since they not only fail with the rest in securing a proper apprecia- 

 tion from the world in general, but are, at the same time, most unfairly 

 treated. Their very parasitic nature offers a temptation to the superficial 

 observer, who would " point a moral, or adorn a tale," that is almost irresistible. 

 The series of analogies they seem to present may be followed up with so much 

 closeness, and with such precision, as almost to conceal their unreality ; and it 

 will be well, therefore, to present a few of them ; for if poets may claim a 

 license, certainly for moralists a false foundation is fatal. 



Tree Fungi may be represented as parasites of the moat vile and con- 

 temptible order, ever ready to prey on the great and on the good. 



A parasitic fungus may be held up as a warning against the encouragement 

 of an unworthy associate — or the insertion of the small end of the wedge— for the 

 microscopic spore once admitted will quickly spread destruction, however 

 grand the tree may be. 



Are they not evil genii it is impossible to shake off, and which inevitably 

 lead on to destruction the trees they haunt ? Again, they may be likened to 

 vampires : the spores flit about and fasten themselves, alike on the living and 

 on the dead, sit fixedly on their victims day and night, fatten on their juices 

 and drink their heart's blood to the death. 



A fine " vegetable beef-steak " at the foot of an oak, like the beautiful 

 Vivien at the feet of Merlin, may be made to represent the destruction of 

 the great and glorious by the trifling and worthless. 



An oak tree in Mycology, afflicted with a Fistulina, may be compared with 

 Prometheus and the vulture in Mythology. It is seldom, however, that a 

 Hercules appears in a fungological form to free the tree from its visitor. 



The tree fungus, in another picture, is again the false guest that destroys 

 its host. If the heart of the tree is sound, and its bark hardened against 

 the insinuating ways of a spore, then all is well ; but if it presents a soft place, 

 the spore will find it, get a footing, and all is over with the landlord. The 

 lodger, so minute, and apparently so innocent and helpless, rapidly swells out, 

 and becomes a troublesome and impudent tenant. He sends his mycelium 

 . from the garret to the basement, and sticks out its pileus from the side of the 

 tree like a public-house sign. Never will he leave his lodgings till the landlord 



