210 FOOTNOTES FROM 



of the oak like the liver of one of the geological monsters 

 of the Preadamite world. Like the liver it is also 

 nutritious, and forms a favourite article of food in 

 Austria, though it is somewhat tough and acrid in taste. 

 Another remarkable species of fungus, called Jew's Ears 

 (Exidium auricula Judae) from its close resemblance to 

 the human ear, clings to the trunks of living trees, par- 

 ticularly the elder, throughout the whole autumnal season. 

 It is of a dusky or red-brown colour, like the ear of a 

 North American Indian, and is wrinkled with large 

 swelling veins branching from the middle, where they 

 are strongest, and somewhat convoluted, the upper side 

 covered with a hoary velvet down, the inside smooth and 

 darker coloured. When it grows on a perpendicular 

 stump or tree, it turns upwards. Another remarkable 

 species (Tremella cerebrina), occurring occasionally in 

 winter and spring on dead wood and branches in very 

 moist, dark places, exactly resembles the brain of an ani- 

 mal. Its substance is of a dirty-white colour, more or less 

 tinged or streaked with red, like the ramifications of minute 

 blood-vessels. It occurs in scolloped undulating masses, 

 of a tender, gelatinous consistence when young, growing 

 tougher when old. Its congener, the Tremella mesen- 

 terica of more frequent occurrence all the year round, 

 particularly on furze bears a strong resemblance to the 

 human mesentery. It is of a rich orange colour. This 

 extraordinary resemblance which different fungi bear to 

 the different parts of the animal body, served to confirm 

 the opinion of the ancient botanists and herbalists, that 

 they were animal structures, or at least intermediate 

 links between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 



