FUNGI AND LICHENS. 105 



plants perform their part in the circle of Nature, con- 

 firming good old George Herbert : 



" More servants wait on man 

 Than he'll take notice of : in every path 

 He treads down that which doth befriend him 

 When sickness makes him pale and wan. 

 Oh, mighty love ! Man is one world, and hath 

 Another to attend him." 



One of the most imposing and attractive of fungi 

 is the Fly Agaric, which grows on the ground in 

 woods. -It has a snow-white stem, swollen like an 

 onion-bulb at the base, about six or eight inches high, 

 with a spreading cap on the top, five or six inches in 

 breadth, of the most beautiful and vivid crimson, often 

 with a yellow tint at the edge, and sprinkled over the 

 surface with dirty white or yellowish patches, or 

 warts. Once seen this is never to be forgotten. Most 

 beautiful to the eye, but to the taste one of the most 

 poisonous species that grows ; a small fragment being 

 sufficient to produce a kind of intoxication, for which 

 purpose it has long been in use in Kamtschatka, 

 whilst in Southern and Western Europe its use as a 

 poison for killing flies is said to have been the origin 

 of its name of Agaricus muscartus, or Fly Agaric. 

 During the past few years it has been discovered that 

 this agaric, which had for so long a period been sup- 

 posed to have no higher use than the poisoning of 

 flies, is in reality a most valuable medicinal agent. 

 The poison of the nightshade family and that of this 

 agaric being found to be antidotes to each other, the 

 one may be employed to counteract the other. In 

 other words, the alkaloid amaniline, obtained from 

 the fungus, neutralises atropine, and solanine, the 



