TREES, EVERGREENS, AND SHRUBS. 27 



particular, one (Agaricus quercinus) which grew over every 

 part of an oak which had been felled and cut up into 

 blocks ; these were used as rustic tables in the garden, 

 and the root part was placed in the fernary. Two or three 

 years afterwards, every one of these pieces was covered by 

 a crop of this curious and beautiful fungus, which grows 

 in fan-shaped masses, each barred by variously coloured 

 and shaded stripes. These fans are at first soft and leath- 

 ery in texture, and the colour often bright ; bands of 

 velvety-purple and green, brown and orange, running to- 

 ward their edges ; they harden with age, and the colours 

 become darker, and run more into the shades of grays and 

 browns, losing partly their velvety look on the surface. I 

 thought at first that this fungus might be peculiar to the 

 oak, but I have seen it since on felled trunks of elms and 

 beeches.'" 



And now that we have brought our favourites to death, 

 does their interest cease ? By no means ; for even out of 

 many of our common trees, how many useful and ornamen- 

 tal articles may be made, and how many a cheerful winter 

 evening be brightened by their blaze ! The wood of the 

 beech and ash is the best for fuel, the latter burning with 



* The following pretty but fanciful allusions to the fungi found 

 n woods is from a description of a woodland walk by Madame Gas- 

 parin : — 



'• Tliey are a singular race, and full of mystery. There are good 

 and bad among them. I am not speaking of their poisonous pro- 

 perties, but of their outward shape and bearing. Some are delicate, 

 milk-white, planted in circles, as if to mark the spot where fairies 

 danced last night. Others are solitary, blackish, livid, treacherous- 



