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2 ANNUAL REPORT. 
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begins to-show itself when the germ is young. The flower itself sometimes 
mildews, or becomes covered with a whitish coating. A clear, yellowish : 
fluid is exuded, which afterwards hardens and turns gray or black. A large 
part of the kernel thus formed is a peculiar kind of oil, called oil of Ergot. | 
The spores of this fungus may come from the seed sown, carried to the 
flower through the juices of the plant. Beside its specific action on the 
womb, ergot also acts as a sedative, quieting the circulation, and checking 
hemorrhage. Ergot when taken in large quantities is poisonous. The 
large spongy puff-ball was formerly used to stop the bleeding of wounds, and 
also as an anodyne. Surgical operations of considerable importance have 
been performed under its influence. Many fungi are used medicinally by the 
Chinese. A fungus called amodou (Polyporus fomentarius) is used by the’ 
Germans as tinder. It is also cut into slices, dried, beaten until soft and 
made into warm caps and chest-protectors. The same substance is used as 
snuff by others. Some of the poisonous fungi are used in making fly and 
bed bug poisons. Still others are used in staining wood. Taken together, 
the fungi are the most useful of all the cryptogamous plants. They cannot . 
compare with the ferns in elegance and beauty, nor with the delicacy and 
brilliancy of the mosses and lichens; but for real utility, (combined, perhaps, 
with real injury,) they stand next to the flowering plants. Z 
There is so great a variety in the structure of fungi that a description 
would filla volume. That of a single species will here suffice. Let us take 
the mushroom. We at once see three distinct parts; 1. the roots or slender 
fibers at the base of the plant, called the mycelium; 2. the stem and cap, 
together called the hymenophore ; and 8. the plates or gills underneath the 
cap, which bear the hymenium or spore-producing surface. The first condi- 
tion is that of the mycelium, which is a collection of vegetating spores or 
cells. It is generally found in the form of slender threads, which at certiin 
points become centers of growth. At first there is only a small knob about 
as large as a mustard seed; but it grows rapidly and other knobs or buds 
appear at its base. Thisis the young hymenophore. As it comes up through 
the earth it becomes elongated, and a close examination reveals the position 
of the future gills. As yet they are only a pair of dark spots on opposite 
sides of the apex. The edges of the cap are bent down and enclosed in the 
skin of the plant until it arrives very nearly at maturity. Then the cap ex- 
pands, breaking the skin and exposing the gills. At the point where the 
skiv is broken from the stem, the collar or ring (see figure) is formed. It 
is easy to find mushrooms in all these stages of growth. A slice of the stem 
or cap under the microscope is seen to be made up of slender, tubular cells. 
The gills are covered with the delicate membrane, or spore-bearing surface, + 
hymenium. If spread out upon a flat surface its size would be something 
astonishing. If the spores be shaken from it as before directed, aud exam- 
ined with the glass, they will be found in groups of four. If the hymenium 
itself is examined, each spore will be seen upon a slender stem, four of these 
stems proceeding from a single, thicker stalk, called a basidium. The 
basidia are mingled with other similar stalks, larger, but bearing no stems 
or spores. They are called cystidia (see figure 2.) The function of these 
latter stalks is not well understood; they are supposed to be the male organs 
of the plant. When the spores fall off the basidia, others are produced, until 
the contents of the basidia are exhausted. The largest spores are micro- 
scopic, and the smallest are not visible under the best microscope. They 
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