OF BRITISH FUNGI. 117 



process has nothing else to recommend it, it has at least 

 the merit of being rather an expensive one. 



Besides this the Rev. M. J. Berkeley states that 

 the following species are also indigenous to Britain : T. 

 brumale, macrosporum, bituminatum, rtifum, sclero- 

 neuron, nitidum, puberulum, and dryophilum ; but of 

 their esculent properties we confess ourselves profoundly 

 ignorant. 



Under the name of Lycoperdon nuts, or Hart's truffles, 

 one species of Elaphomyces (E. granulatus) had for- 

 merly a medicinal reputation, and might be met with 

 in the herbalists' shops ; but now the name is almost 

 unknown. In some country districts, amongst the 

 lovers of the marvellous and antique, it still bears a part 

 of its original reputation, and occasionally obtains em- 

 ployment. 



The medicinal substance known under the name of 

 ergot of rye has a fungoid origin, and is, indeed, an 

 altered condition of the grain, caused by the growth of 

 a parasitical species of Cordiceps (0. purpurea). The 

 mycelium of this parasite traverses the substance of the 

 grain, and so entirely changes its properties, that what 

 was before available as an article of food, now becomes 

 decidedly injurious. Bread made of ergotized grain 

 produces a form of disease called ergotism, which has 

 at different times overspread large districts on the Con- 

 tinent, as though it were the visitation of the plague. 

 The genus Cordiceps belongs to the order Sphceriacei, 

 which is nearly allied to that which contains the 

 truffle. 



