656 



FUNGI GADOID M. 



FUNGI. This extensive collection of plants forms 

 the ninth order of the class Aphyllce, belonging to the 

 grand division Cellulares. It contains all the mush- 

 rooms, mildews, &c., found on decayed vegetable or 

 animal matter. Many doubts have been entertained 

 of the exact nature of these plants, some believing them 

 not vegetable but animal productions, while others 

 have denied that they are either, but some fortuitous 

 effects of nature. But all these speculations have 

 been shown to be based on error, and no one now 

 denies that fungi are truly plants. 



Fungi and insects have not inaptly been called 

 " the scavengers of nature," for both labour, and with 

 astonishing effect, in the removal of refuse matters, 

 which, were they left on the surface of the earth, 

 would be found not only useless incumbrances, but 

 injurious tenants. The fungi are for the most part 

 parasitic plants, and chiefly grow on dead or decay- 

 ing substances. These they help to disintegrate and 

 dissolve, and speedily remove, converting the exuviae 

 of one generation into manure and vegetable mould 

 for the support and sustenance of the next. For 

 these duties, their minute seeds and wandering habits 

 particularly suit them. See Mucou, MUSHROOM, &c. 



FUNKIA (Sprengel). A genus of hardy peren- 

 nial herbs, natives of China and Japan, introduced in 

 1794, under the name of Hemerocallis, but separated 

 therefrom by Sprengel. Generic character : corolla 

 bell-shaped, swollen at the base, contracted above 

 the germen, limb in six divisions, somewhat gaping ; 

 stamens filaments inserted into the bottom of the 

 tube declining ; anthers incumbent ; style declining ; 

 stigma obtuse ; capsule three-celled, many seeded. 

 Propagated by division. 



FURCRCEA (Ventenat). A genus of tropical 

 perennials allied to the Agaves, being succulent and 

 treated as aloes usually are. They belong to the 

 natural order Bromeliacece. 



FURZE is the Ulex Europcsa of Linnaeus, a well 

 known plant inhabiting waste ground and commons. 

 It is extensively cultivated in some places where the 

 land is poor, and cut every second or third year and 

 made into faggots for the use of lime and brick kilns. 

 It is also used as fodder for horses, being mown when 

 very young, and bruised in a mill to soften its spines. 

 Although its principal flowering season be in May 

 and June, it flowers at every other season, it being a 

 rare thing to see a patch of a dozen plants without 

 some one or other of them being in flower. 



FUSUS (Bruguiere ; MOREX, Linnaeus). This 

 genus of shells has very properly been separated 

 from the confused Linnaean genus Murex, in which 

 was included all the species not having thickened 

 bands, without distinguishing the genera Pynila, 

 Pleurotoma, and others, now forming well defined 

 genera. The shells of this genus, as it is now esta- 

 blished, are of a fusiform or spindle shape, whence 

 the name ; the whorls ventricose at the lower extre- 

 mity, and without varices, or longitudinal thickened 

 bands on the spire or body. The columella is rarely 

 plaited, as in the Fasciolarue and TurbinellcE, the right 

 lip exhibits no slit, as in the Pleurotomts, and the 

 long produced turretted spire clearly distinguishes 

 them from the Pyruloe. These molluscs may be de- 

 scribed generally as being turretted, with a transverse 

 or nodulous keel, sometimes striated longitudinally ; 

 the columella plain ; aperture canaliculated at the 

 base, and ending in a channelled beak, frequently 

 onger than the spiral whorls ; the right side of the 



aperture in adult examples is always toothed or ere* 

 nulated ; it possesses an epidermis, and an oval shaped 

 horny operculum, with a lateral summit. Lamarck 

 enumerates thirty-seven recent species all marine 

 shells, three or four of which inhabit the northern 

 regions, the others are only found in the eastern seas. 

 France furnishes numerous fossil species, and they 

 are also often found in this country. For their clas- 

 sification, see MUREX. 



GAD-FLY. A term of indefinite signification 

 applied to various species of dipterous insects which 

 are troublesome to horses and cattle. In the Intro- 

 duction to Entomology, Messrs. Kirby and Spence 

 apply it to the species of CEstridce, giving to the Ta- 

 banida; the name of horse-flies ; but in " The New 

 World of English Words throughout the Artes and 

 Sciences," published in 1658, we find the "gaddefly" 

 described as a certain insect which stings cattle, called 

 also a " brie," and the " brie or brieze" is therein de- 

 scribed as a kind of fly, called a horse-fly or gad-fly. 

 Now as the Tabanidce alone sting or rather bite cat- 

 tle, and as the term breeze has certainly occasionally 

 been applied to the insects of the other family, it will 

 prevent all further confusion by describing the two 

 groups of insects, and their respective modes of tor- 

 menting these useful animals, under their scientific 

 family names. 



GADOID^E the Cod family. A family of soft- 

 finned fishes with sub-brachial fins, or with the two 

 under lateral fins, which answer to the hind legs of 

 the mammalia, situated on the throat immediately 

 under the gill-openings. They compose the first of 

 the three families into which Cuvier divides the soft- 

 finned fishes which have their under fins below or in 

 advance of the pectorals, and the bones which support 

 those fins are joined immediately to the bones of the 

 shoulder. The family consists only of two genera, 

 the great genus Gadusor cod, and the genus Macrourus, 

 to which the continental ichthyologists give the 

 name of grenadiers. The last genus consists of only 

 two species, and these are but little known. They 

 inhabit the depths of the Mediterranean, and of some 

 parts of the temperate regions of the Atlantic. They 

 are not very often caught, and their manners are 

 obscure ; but we shall have to give some short notice 

 of them in a subsequent part of this article. 



The genus Gadus on the other hand is exceedingly 

 numerous both in species and in individuals ; and 

 taking them altogether they may be regarded as the 

 most valuable fishes in the sea in an economical 

 point of view. They are caught in vast numbers, 

 many of them are of large size ; and though there are 

 differences of flavour in the different species, and 

 even in the same species, according to the ground on 

 which it happens to feed, and the condition in which 

 it is when taken, the flesh of the whole is light, whole- 

 some, and agreeable. It possesses another advantage 

 over that of most fish, that it admits of being more 

 perfectly cured by salting, and in this way, either 

 salted moist, or dried, it furnishes a vast quantity of 

 food for the inhabitants of those countries where, 

 from the nature of the seas, or from the countries 

 being situated inland, fish in the recent state cannot 

 be obtained. If we take this genus altogether, 

 perhaps they are more wholesome and also better 

 flavoured than almost any other fishes ; and, though 

 this circumstance lessens their value in the estimation 

 of those who are curious ia fish, yet they are, gene- 



