FUNGI PREY ON TIMBER, VINES, ETC. 47 



and the diseased portions of the deodara removed, and 

 now it bids fair to thrive without any further check. 

 Herbaceous plants, such as strawberries, suffer from the 

 same cause ; and it is now certain that wherever frag- 

 ments of wood or sticks exist in manure, whether in the 

 garden or field, there is considerable danger. The for- 

 midable larch-rot, which converts the trunks of larches 

 into hollow pipes, is often attributable to this cause/' 

 (Berkeley.} 



Of fungi attacking timber employed in the construc- 

 tion of houses and ships, the most formidable, perhaps, 

 is the dry-rot, which converts the wood into a dry 

 powdery mass, though both it and the wood are often 

 sprinkled with large drops of moisture. In domestic 

 buildings, where little care is exercised in the selection 

 of timber, the wood is often deeply impregnated with 

 spawn before it is used ; and we lately visited the house 

 of a friend which had been abandoned after years of dis- 

 comfort from the presence of this pestiferous visitant. 

 It is some consolation to know that its attacks may be 

 prevented by impregnating the pores of the wood with 

 gas-tar, sulphate of copper, or some other poisonous 

 metallic salt ; and that, when established, its progress 

 may be greatly modified by repeated washing with a 

 saturated solution of corrosive sublimate. 



Many fungi prey on the tissue of living leaves. The 

 hop mould, the rose mildew, the vine mildew, and other 

 allied fungi, exhaust the plant and impede its circula- 

 tion, partly by feeding on its juices, and partly by clog- 

 ging up its pores. Most of these yield to sublimated 

 sulphur, if timely and judiciously applied. The modes 

 in which these fungi are propagated are so many, how- 

 ever, that they spread with frightful rapidity. The 

 cultivation of the vine in Madeira has almost ceased 

 from this cause, and is everywhere precarious. " It is 

 curious that this fungus has never been found on the 

 American vines, or their numerous varieties, when cul- 

 tivated in Europe. The Isabella, for instance, a grape 



