USES OF FUNGI. 49 



field-grasses, converting them into a firm mass without 

 any appearance of meal. Though useful from its medi- 

 cal properties, the prevalence of ergot causes cattle and 

 sheep to slip their young, and, in addition to the fatal 

 gangrene which it occasions in man when entering 

 largely into bread, it is the probable cause of many dis- 

 eases among cattle when they eat it in seasons during 

 which it abounds. 



We have drawn up such a heavy bill of indictment 

 against fungi that we doubt not our readers are curious 

 to know how the charge of irremediable mischief is to 

 be parried or contradicted. We shall, therefore, now 

 proceed to the uses of fungi. By their fermentative 

 and putrefactive powers they perform important func- 

 tions in the economy of nature. Decomposing even the 

 hardest vegetable substances, they provide a rich sup- 

 ply of vegetable mould for coming generations, besides 

 destroying those structures which, having served their 

 purposes, need to be removed. Several years ago a row 

 of large ash- trees near our habitat fell under the wood- 

 man's axe : we have been interested watching the pro- 

 gress by which the unsightly stumps have been re- 

 moved. They are yearly covered with large specimens 

 of Polyporus squamosus, several of them measuring two 

 feet across, while yearly decay makes growing inroads 

 into the formerly solid wood, which now readily yields 

 to a push from a walking-stick, or is converted into a 

 rotten dust which the wind scatters across the neigh- 

 bouring fields. 



An important use is made of a particular condition of 

 certain species of mould in the preparation of fermented 

 liquors, under the form of yeast, which consists of 

 bodies more or less oval, continually giving off joints 

 so as to produce short, branched, necklace-like threads. 

 These joints soon fall off, and rapidly give rise to a 

 new generation, which is successively propagated till 

 the substance is produced under the name of yeast. 

 The globules of which this is composed retain their 



