AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HORTICULTURE. 



87 



Feucedanum continued. 



are British plants : P. officinale (Snlphurwort), P. Ostru- 



thium (Masterwort), P. palustre (Milk Parsley), and P. 



sativum (Wild Parsnip). For culture of the last-named, 



see Parsnip. 



P. sativum (cultivated). Parsnip. /. bright yellow, small; 

 umbel-rays many, stout, long. July and August. I. shiny, 

 pinnate ; leaflets two to five pairs, lin. to Sin. long, sessile, ovate, 

 inciso-serrate. Stem 2ft. to 3ft. high, stout, angled, furrowed, 

 fistular. Europe (Britain), Siberia. Annual or biennial. The 

 Parsnip has been cultivated since the time of the Romans. SYN. 

 Pastinaca saliva. 



FEUMUS (said to be the native name in Chili). 

 STNS. Boldea, Ruizia. OED. Monimiaceae. A monotypic 

 genus. The species is a small, greenhouse, evergreen, 

 fragrant tree. It succeeds in a compost of sandy peat, 

 and may be increased by cnttinga. 



P. Boldns (Boldus). JL white, dioecious, disposed in terminal 

 cymes, which are shorter, or scarcely longer, than the leaves ; 

 male perianth larger than the female, of ten or twelve lobes, two 

 or three-seriate, imbricated. May. I. opposite, or rarely alternate, 

 coriaceous, ovate-elliptic, acute, entire, h. 20ft. Chili, 1844. 

 (B. B. 1845, 57, under name of Eoldoa fragrans.) The leaves are 

 used in medicine for the purpose of assisting digestion, &c. The 

 fruit is sweet, and is eaten in Chili, and the bark is used for 

 tanning. 



FEYROT7SIA, of Sweet. A synonym of Lapey- 

 rousia (which see). 



FEZIZA. A large genus of Fungi, of which by far the 

 greater number live on decaying remains of animals or of 

 plants, or on dung or earth in which there is abund- 

 ance of decaying organic matter. A few grow upon and 

 injure living plants, both wild and cultivated. The 

 vegetative system of the Fungus consists of mycelium 

 hidden in the substance on which it grows. The con- 

 spicuous part, by means of which the species are iden- 

 tified by mycologists, is that specialised for reproduction. 



FIG. 97. PEZIZA COCCINEA (natural size). 



This is in the form of a cup, rather shallow in some, 

 deep in others (see Figs. 97, 98, and 99). This large 

 genus has been broken up into sections, treated by some 

 mycologists as genera, characterised by consistence, 

 presence or absence of a stalk, of hairs externally, of 

 a membrane closing the young cups, &c. ; but the as- 

 semblage of species, as a whole, is a very natural one. 

 They vary in size of cups from several inches across to 

 a size too small to be seen without a lens. The inner 

 surface of the cup is lined with a layer of large cells, of 

 cylindrical or club-shaped form (asci), standing erect 

 (see Fig. 98, d), in each of which lie eight small, oval, 

 smooth, or, less often, warty cells (spores), which are set 

 free by the asci bursting at the end next the surface. 

 Sometimes the spores are emitted in a thin cloud, when 

 the Fungus is exposed to dry air. 



While many of the species produce the cups on a 

 mycelium of loosely-woven hyphse, or filaments, formed 

 in the substance from which the Fungus is drawing its 

 nourishment, other species form a sclerotium, i.e., a mass 

 composed of densely interwoven hyphae grown together, 

 so as to resemble a true tissue (see Fig. 99, sc). This 

 body is usually black and hard outside, but pale and soft 

 inside. It is fitted to resist changes of temperature 

 during winter; and in spring it aids in reproduction by 



Feziza continued. 



producing one or more cups, of the structure described 

 above. A very common and well-known example is the 

 sclerotium, so common in winter on dead herbaceous 

 stems, called 8. durum. In spring, there is a grey 

 mould, formed largely on it (Polyactis cinerea), which 

 produces myriads of round conidia or spores. Later on, 

 long-stalked cups of a Peziza (P. Fuckeliana) grow out 

 from the same sclerotinm. 



FIG. 98. PEZIZA POSTUMA a, Small Specimen (natural size), with 

 two Cups on slender stalks, which rise from an oval Sclerotium 

 (*c) ; 6, Cup, cut lengthwise ; c, Section of Half of Cup, showing 

 surface-layer of Asci ; d, Two Asci, each with eight Spores, 

 arising from small-celled Tissue of Cup (magnified about 250 

 times). 



These remarks must be restricted to the species of 

 Peziza that give rise to disease in cultivated plants, 

 and therefore the other kinds will not be again referred 

 to. The most hurtful recorded in Britain is one that 

 has proved destructive to Potatoes in Ireland and in 

 Scotland ; and it has ajso been injurious in Norway. 

 The plants become covered with a thick felt of 

 mycelium all over the diseased parts ; and amidst 

 this are formed masses of compact tissue (sclerotia), 

 at first pale, then becoming dark. Some of these 

 masses are as large as a small bean, but few ex- 

 ceed a small pea in size. In a short time, the 

 host-plant perishes, but the Fungus goes on to 

 perfect its sclerotia. From each of these, in the 

 summer, there grow two or three cups. When 

 fully grown, these are nearly flat, and about 

 Jin. or ^in. across, and they are supported on a 

 slender, wavy stalk, from 2in. to 4in. long. 

 Messrs. Berkeley and A. S. Wilson have named it 

 P. postuma, but it seems very closely allied 

 to P. sclerotiorum, Lib., and P. ciboroides, Fr. (see 

 Fig. 99) j and it is doubtful whether they are really 



FIG. 99. PEZIZA CIBOROIDES (enlarged) 6, Cups ; e, Stalks ; 

 sc, Portion of Tissue of Sclerotium. 



distinct species. P. sclerotiorum causes disease in 

 Turnips and Cabbages in Germany, forming sclerotia 



