4 A PLAIN AND EASY ACCOUNT 



or, to come nearer to some of us, all our books un- 

 touched ? 



But, in places which many would consider more un- 

 likely still, we may look for and expect to find fungi :* 

 on whitewashed walls, plaster ceilings, dirty glass, old 

 flannel, and old boots and shoes, or leather of any 

 description ; on carpets, mats, and boards, and even the 

 plants in our herbaria must be watched against their 

 ravages. Animals bear them about on their horns and 

 hoofs, and the housefly often carries in its body the 

 vegetating fungus which ultimately deprives it of life. 

 The yeast that is employed for fermenting our bread 

 and our beer is a fungus, as well as the mildew and 

 smut that infest our growing corn. 



From cesspools and traps the minute dust-like spores 

 of hidden fungi rise into our dwellings, unseen they 

 float in the air, entering everywhere, depositing them- 

 selves everywhere, and vegetating wherever the con- 

 ditions are favourable to their development. 



It was strongly affirmed at one time that our cholera 

 visitations were due to these invisible agents, and a 

 large volume has been written on these vegetable 

 parasites on men and animals. " When our beer 

 becomes mothery, the mother of that mischief is a 



* As a difficulty is occasionally experienced amongst amateurs 

 with reference to the pronunciation of this word in its plural 

 form, we may remind them, that in the singular the g should be 

 hard, as in gum, whilst in the plural fungi has the g soft, as 

 Fun-ji. It may be permitted us to protest against such a bar- 

 barism as funguses, which has sometimes been employed as the 

 plural of fungus. 



