THE POPULAE EDUCATOR. 



in infecting 1 all the corn, not only in the field where the in- 

 jured wheat grows, but in all those adjacent to it. 



The first appearance of this blight is usually in the spring, or 

 early in the summer, when it arises in the form of orange- 

 coloured streaks, which afterwards assume a deep chocolate- 

 brown. The tufts of this fungus are dense and often confluent, 

 forming long parallel lines (Fig. 314). The spores are con- 

 tained in a tubercular, double-celled case, and are black ; this 

 case is supported by a filiform peduncle or stem, as seen in Fig. 

 313. 



But it is not on our corn-fields only that a plague of fungi 

 rests ; these little Puccinice attack the leaves of plum and 

 other fruit trees, devour the fluids of our bean plants, and 

 scatter themselves in destructive armies over our raspberry 

 bushes and our rose beds (Figs. 315 and 316). There are 

 some forty or more species which spread themselves in all 

 directions on the leaves and stems of our plants and flowers, 

 nor ever cease their ravages until they have destroyed the 

 vitality of whatever part they touch. 



But we must now, in this our concluding lesson on the 

 science of Botany, turn to another class of fungi those which 

 beset our dainties under the name of mould. The following 

 affords an interesting account of this production : " If, during 

 the warm weather, we put aside a bit of bread, or a slice of 

 apple, pear, melon, or a turnip or potato-peeling, if nothing 

 better is at hand, we shall find in a few days that all those sub- 

 stances will have assumed a mouldy appearance. Take a little of 

 this mould gently off on the point of a penknife, and subject it 

 to the microscope; you see in the moulded bread a grove of 

 tall stalks, each with a round head slightly flattened in 

 short, a mushroom in miniature. This is the ]\Iucor Mucedo 

 (Fig. 318), the fungus of the bread-mould. While fresh and 

 young, they are of a beautiful milk-white colour; gradually 

 they assume a yellowish tinge. The stalks are so transparent 

 as, under a good magnifying power, to show the cellular 

 structure inside; the bulb also now exhibits, under a thin 

 bark or skin, a number of minute, circular bodies, all ar- 

 ranged in a compact form : these are the spores or seeds. 

 After a day or two more, the fungi begin to ripen, and as- 

 sume a brownish tint ; the bulbs blacken, the skin bursts, 

 and innumerable spores are scattered about, many floating away 

 in the air. This forest of mould, like larger ones, is liable to 

 accidents. You may see in one corner, for instance, that the 

 bit of bread forming the soil has cracked ; thus a fungus has 

 been loosened at the root, and it falls down, we may suppose, 

 with a crash, though we still desiderate instruments to magnify 

 and make audible the sound. Nevertheless, the effects of the 

 fall are visible in the breaking down of neighbouring stems, 

 and in the premature scattering of the seed. You may see, too, 

 sometimes the scattered seeds collect upon one or two plants, 

 and, enveloping them, entirely destroy their vitality, and thus 

 cause old, rotten-looking stumps." 



But it must not bo understood that the mouldiness which 

 we find on our eatables is always a crop of the same species 

 of fungus, or even of different species of the same genus. It 

 is not so. The kinds which infest the apple and the pear are 

 different, and those which " rot and then fatten on " our grapes, 

 plums, and raspberries, are all different from each other. Then 

 there are other kinds which float in our fermented liquors ; 

 whilst others, again, are found within the nutshell ; and even 

 within the innermost cavities of the walnut. Some, "like 

 leeches, stick to the bulbs of plants, and suck them dry;" 

 whilst others, not content with a vegetable diet, lay hold of the 

 hoofs of horses and the horns of cattle ; nay, under certain 

 diseased conditions, even the lungs and other organs of 'human 

 beings are beset by these all- destructive little beings. Even in 

 health it is a rare thing to find a mouth where the interstices 

 of the teeth are not more or less the habitats of these vege- 

 tables. 



Fungi not only prey on objects which are members of other 

 families than their own, but they unscrupulously devour each 

 other. 



Many of the Pileati have parasitic fungi, which attach them- 

 selves solely to them, never attacking any other species. One 

 sort settles itself on dried Agarics; another only on moist, 

 decaying ones ; whilst a third devours only the flesh of a par- 

 ticular Boletus. 



Dr. Badham, writing of these, says, " Few minute objects are 



more beautiful than these mucrdinous fungi fungorum. A 

 common one besets the back of some of the Russulce in 

 decay, spreading over it, especially if the weather be moist, 

 like thin flocks of light wool, presenting on the second day a 

 bluish tint on the surface. Under a powerful magnifier, myriads 

 of little glass-like stalks are brought into view, which bifurcate 

 again and again, each ultimate head ending in a semilucent head, 

 or button, at first blue, and afterwards black ; which, when it 

 comes to burst, scatters the spores, which are then (iinder the 

 microscope) seen adhering to the sides of the delicate filamentary 

 stalks, like so many minute limpets. There is a very beautiful 

 fungus called the pencilled mould (Aspergillus penicillatus, Fig. 

 317), which clusters its pretty beaded tassels on the dried plants 

 in our herbariums. This little plant consists of a stem and a 

 cluster of sporules at the top, not unlike a brush with a handle. 

 Aspergillus is the name of the brush with which the holy water 

 is sprinkled in Roman Catholic churches, and from this resem- 

 blance the genus takes its name. Nemaspora Carpini (Fig. 

 321) is another curious species. This infests the dead wood of 

 the hornbeam, its singular black spores escaping from their flat 

 cases, and thrusting themselves upwards in the form of tendrils. 

 Then there are the many species of Sphceria, which raise their 

 little button-like forms on the branches of trees, and stud them 

 over with sphere-like gems, some yellow, others scarlet, brown, 

 black, orange, white, crimson, and a hundred other tints of 

 richest dye." Sometimes these wonderfully varied little fungi 

 are sessile on the substance they have selected for their habitat, 

 as in Figs. 324, 325, and 326 ; in others they are raised on 

 stalks. Some have smooth visible orifices, through which the 

 spores escape ; in others these openings are hairy ; and in some 

 species they are not visible at all. 



Besides frequenting living plants, and closely besetting their 

 leaves and branches, fungi of this genus are found abundantly 

 on the bark of dead branches, and even on the wood where the 

 bark has been removed. They frequent, also, the flock of 

 Agarics ; and one species, the nest-like Sphaaria, is found in the 

 little hollows of bean-roots ; whilst others cluster on apples that 

 are lying on the ground, the stems of reeds, or even on the naked 

 earth. There are some species which take up their abode on, 

 and obtain their sustenance from dead larvas, pupas, and spiders' 

 eggs ; whilst one, Cordiceps Robertsii, grows upon living 

 caterpillars, causing their death. So numerous .are the spe- 

 cies which rank under this genus, that 201 are catalogued by 

 Berkeley. 



Racodium cellare, the mouse-skin byssus, is the fungus which 

 festoons and covers the walls of our wine-cellars. For specimens, 

 Badham refers us to the " London Docks, passim, where he pays 

 his unwelcome visits, and is in even worse odour than the 

 excisemen." L&udon tells us that it takes its name from a word 

 "used among the Greeks" for a worthless, worn-out, ragged 

 garment, which has been applied to the present genus in allusion 

 to the dirty, interwoven, cloth-like substance with which it 

 clothes whatever it grows on. Racodium cellare is the black 

 substance which overruns the bottles of the wine-merchant, and 

 which often hangs in long thick festoons from the sides and roof 

 of his wine-cellars. 



There is a very curious species of fungus which is found over- 

 spreading the thing on which it grows like froth. Withering, 

 on the authority of Stackhouse, thus describes it : " Its first 

 appearance is like custard spilt upon the grass or leaves. This 

 soon becomes frothy, and then contracts around the blades of 

 grass or leaves in the form of little tubercles united together. 

 On examining it in ibs different stages under the microscope, it 

 first appeared like a cluster of bubbles, irregularly shaped, and 

 melting into one another. In the second stage it appeared im 

 bricated, or tiled, with open cells, the edges of the cells beauti- 

 fully waved. A blackish powdery matter, on the surface of the 

 cells, now gives the plant a greyish cast. In the third stage, 

 the wavy imbrication disappears, and the plant settles with 

 minute tubercles united together. Some of these are closed ; 

 but many of them appear as if torn open, and out of the cavity 

 emerge little downy strings, with irregular-shaped terminations, 

 and other similar irregular bodies on the same strings, like the 

 heads of some of the genus Mucor." 



We have seen that some of the fungus tribe are capable of being 

 turned to important uses as a nutritious and wholesome article 

 of diet, and that others have medicinal properties which render 

 them highly valuable. One kind is employed in making ink. 



