282 FOOTNOTES FROM 



reeds or loose grass to remain in the ditches, but to clear 

 everything away, and to consume it at once. " As the 

 species which attacks reeds and grass is to all appearance 

 the same with that of the wheat, the disease may be pro- 

 pagated in the spring from such outliers. For the same 

 reason, it is desirable that the stubble should not be left 

 on the land too long, and, indeed, long mowing must be 

 better than reaping." The various mildews that appear 

 on the grape and other fruits and useful plants, may 

 easily be prevented from developing themselves by the 

 application, at an early stage, of powdered sulphur, 

 which, combining as it does with the oxygen of the atmos- 

 phere, forms sulphuric acid, the only chemical poison de- 

 structive to moulds and mildews. 



Fungi, owing to their cellular and perishable nature, 

 do not usually occur in a fossil state. Some slight 

 traces of them, however, now and then occur among the 

 relics of a former state of things. Species of mould 

 have occasionally been found in the amber beds of 

 the tertiary formation having been deposited and de- 

 veloped on the resinous juices of the amber pines, just 

 as filaments of mould are often seen at the present day 

 adhering to the gum of apricot and cherry trees. These 

 tiny plants, identical as they are with the common green 

 and blue moulds that infest our cupboards, leave us no 

 room to doubt that fungi were as prevalent and destruc- 

 tive in former epochs as they are now. M. Goeppert, who 

 has examined minutely the amber of various lands, has 

 detected in it, besides moulds, fragments of mosses, 

 hepaticse, and lichens, perfectly preserved, as in a 

 mummy case, the sole insignificant relics of that vast 



