FUMARIA 



FUNGUS 



617 



those who delight in herbals As an ornamental plant, 

 it is far surpassed by Adlumia. The genus gives name 

 to the family Fumarlaceti'. 



FUMITORY. Fmnaria officinalis. 



FUNGICIDE (see Spraying) is a material used to de- 

 stroy fungi or to prohibit their growth. The leading 

 Fungicides are materials which contain sulfur or cop- 

 per. Bordeaux mixture is tlie chief Fungicide in use at 

 the present time. It is a mixture of blue vitriol (sulfate 

 of copper) aud lime, in water. The usual formula is 



Copper sidfate 6 lbs. 



Lime 4 lbs. 



Water 35-50 gals. 



The copper sulfate is rJissolved in the water, and milk 

 of lime is added. In spraying large areas, it is better to 

 prepare stock solutions for the Bordeaux mixture 

 rather than to make each batch in the quantities called 

 for by the formula. The sulfate of copper may be put 

 into solution and kept in this condition indefinitely, 

 ready for use. A simple method is to dissolve 40 or 50 

 pounds of sulfate in as many gallons of water, pulver- 

 izing the material and hanging it in a coffee-sack in the 

 top of the barrel. A gallon of water, therefore, means a 

 pound of sulfate. The lime may also be slaked and 

 kept in readiness for use. Slake it into the creamy con- 

 dition familiar to masons, cover lightly with water, and 

 then close the box or vessel to prevent the water from 

 evaporating. When making the Bordeaux mixture, 

 pour the requisite quantity of the stock solution of sul- 

 fate of copper into the barrel, and then fill the barrel 

 half full of water. Now add the lime (which should be 

 •diluted with water), stir, and add enough water to satisfy 

 the formula. In order to test whether the sulfate has been 

 neutralized by the lime, a little ferrocyanide of potassium 

 may be applied to the mixture. Place a spoonful of the 

 Bordeaux mixture in a saucer or plate, and add a drop of 

 the ferrocyanide. If a red color appears, the mixture 

 needs more lime. If the test solution is added directly to 

 a tanker barrel of the mixture, the color reaction is likely 

 to be lost in the mass. An excess of lime insures the 

 safety of the mixture. 



The Bordeaux mixture is used for many parasitic fun- 

 gous diseases. It is not only inimical to fungi, but it 

 adheres to foliage and stems for a long time. Best re- 

 sults are secured when it is applied before the fungus 

 has become established. Bordeaux mixture is usually 

 more satisfactory when it has not stood long. 



The sulfate of copper is the active Fungicidal ingre- 

 dient of the Bordeaux mixture, but if applied alone, in 

 water, it is very caustic to foliage, and it does not ad- 

 here long. For the treatment of dormant trees and 

 shrubs it may be very useful, since itcanbeused strong, 

 and is thereliy very destructive of fungi. For dormant 

 wood it is often used 1 lb. to 10-1.5 gallons of water. 



The greatest competitor of Bordeaux mixture is a 

 mixture made by dissolving carbonate of copper in am- 

 monia and then diluting the solution with water. It is 

 sometimes used on ornamental plants and nearly ripe 

 fruits, since the Bordeaux mixture renders them untidy. 

 Oneounceof copper carbonate will be dissolved by 1 pint 

 or less of very strong ammonia. This concentrated liquid 

 can be kept indefinitely. When to be used, dilute with 

 8-10 gallons of water. 



Dry sulfur is a Fungicide. It is sometimes dusted on 

 plants in glasshouses for surface mildews, and it is 

 much used in California vineyards. It is oftenest 

 used as a vapor in houses. If smeared on the heat- 

 ing pipes, the fumes will give a perceptible odor in 

 the house, and will prevent the mildews of roses, 

 cucumbers, and other plants. The sulfur must not 

 be liurned, tor the fumes of burning sulfur are fatal 

 to plants. L H. B. 



FUNGUS (plural, i^'ioiffi; adjective, /h«,70»s). The 

 class Fungi includes all those plants which are popularly 

 known as mushrooms or toadstools, puffballs, rusts, 

 smut, molds and mildews. These, however, form but 

 a small part of the total number. There are many 

 otliers which are inconspicuous, like the yeasts, or 

 which are of no special economic importance and hence 

 have escaped popular notice. All the parts of a fungous 



plant are seldom seen. That part which is usually ex- 

 posed to view, and which is popularly designated as a 

 Fungus, is merely the fertile or f ruit-bearing part of the 

 plant. A mushroom is the fruit of a Fungus. The vege- 

 tative part, that which supplies and elaborates mate- 

 rials for the growth of the plant, and which, in a way, 

 corresponds to the roots and leaves of higher plants, is 

 hidden away in the ground, in decaying wood and other 

 organic matter, or within the tissiies of other living 

 plants upon which the Fungus feeds. 



Both the vegetative and the fruiting part of all Fungi, 

 excepting some of the yeasts, are made up entirely of 

 microscopic threads, which are very much branched and 

 divided into elongated cells by ci-osswalls at irregular 

 intervals. These threads are called hyphae. The vege- 

 tative hyphse consid- 

 ered collectively are 

 spoken of as the my- 

 celium or spawn of 

 the Fungus in the 

 same sense in which 

 we speak of the roots 

 of a tree. 



In the lower Fungi, 

 such as molds and 

 most of the parasitic 

 species, the mycelium 

 is comparatively sim- 

 ple, consisting of 

 much - branched 

 threads which course 

 through the nutrient 

 material upon which 

 they grow, or. in the 

 case of parasitic Fun- 

 gi, either among the 

 cells, or, as mildews, 

 on the surface oi 

 their hosts. At the 

 fruiting time many 

 threads grow out 

 from the substratum 

 to the light and air. 

 These threads remain 

 simple or become 

 branched like the 

 trunk of a tree, and 

 finally bear spores at 

 the ends of the 

 threads or branches. 

 Examples of these 

 plants are the blue 

 mold on jam, etc., 

 the common bread mold, and nearly all the Fungi 

 which form spots or a white coating on leaves. The my- 

 celium of toadstools and other higher Fungi is of much 

 greater extent and more highly developed than that of 

 the molds. It is often seen as a cottony weft form- 

 ing white patches on posts and boards exposed in damp, 

 dark places. It can always be found on sticks and on 

 decaying leaves in the woods. The white threads in 

 fire-fanged manure are also mycelium. Perhaps the 

 best known form of mycelium is the spawn in bricks, 

 commercially known as "mushroom spawn." In na- 

 ture the mycelium of these plants often forms strands 

 as much as an eighth of an inch in thickness. It grows 

 for varying periods of time, sometimes for years, in the 

 ground, in decaying organic materials, or in fallen and 

 standing trunks, etc., until it is ready to fruit. 



The fruit of these plants is not formed from a single, 

 erect thread, but of many hundreds of threads which 

 appear above the substratum as a thick bundle or as a 

 tuberculiform mass. The threads increase in length and 

 send out many branches which become closely inter- 

 woven, gradually building up the fleshy umbrella-like 

 bodies, or the hard shelving masses, which we know as 

 toadstools, mushrooms, etc. The spores are borne on the 

 lower, protected side of the fruit bodies on gills or 

 spines, within honey-combed pores, or directly upon the 

 smooth, lower surface. 



All Fungi grow on living or dead organic matter. 

 They have no chlorophyll, and hence cannot assimilate 

 carbon from carbon di-oxid. jj. Hasselbking. 



879. A Funeus. 

 mildew, showing tlie mycelium 

 in the leaf tissue and the hang- 

 ing spore - bearing threads. 

 Much magnified. 



