94 A PLAIN AND EAST ACCOUNT 



work of coral, but is of so putrescent a nature that its 

 odour materially detracts from its beauty ; and it is 

 recorded of a botanist who gathered one for the purpose 

 of drying it for his herbarium, that he was compelled by 

 the stench to rise during the night and cast the offender 

 out at the window. M. Roques relates of its properties 

 that a young person having eaten a morsel was seized 

 with violent convulsions, lost the use of her speech, 

 and ultimately fell into a stupor which lasted forty-eight 

 hours : prompt attention was given to her, but it appears 

 to have been some months before she was perfectly 

 cured. 



The common Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) has an 

 equally abominable odour, to which we have already 

 alluded,* with nothing of beauty to recommend it, and 

 although not uncommon, no one would think of 

 preparing it for a meal. 



PUFF-BALL FUNGI. 



IN the first of the two orders just noticed the 

 hymenium neither melts nor becomes dusty ; in the 

 last it melts, and in the present order it dries into a 

 dusty mass of threads and spores. From the remote 

 resemblance which this mass sometimes bears to a lock 

 of soft brown wool, the order has been called Tricho- 

 gastres (Thrix, Gr., wool or hair). The most pictu- 

 resque of forms are found in the genus G 'easier ; but 

 although we have nine indigenous species, none of these 

 * Tide p. 10. 



