FUCHSIA 



FUNGI 



1303 



red. N. Zeal. B.M. 6139. G. 35:97.— A very inter- 

 esting little plant, suitable for baskets. 



Species not known to be in the American trade are: F. ampliata, 

 Benth. Fls. large, scarlet, long-tubed, drooping. Colombia. B.M. 

 6839. — F. baciUdris. Lindl. Compact, with short-jointed branches: 

 fls. very small, flaring-mouthed, rosy, drooping. Mex. B.R. 1480. 

 — F. cardifolia, Benth. Fls. 2 in. long, slender, drooping, hairy, 

 red, on very long pedicels. Mex. B.R. 27:70. — F. Dominiiina, 

 Hort. Garden hybrid with long drooping red fls. of the speciosa 

 type. F.S. 10:1004. — F. excorlicata, Linn. f. Shrub or small tree 

 of New Zeal., reaching 40 ft. high and the trunk sometimes 2*3 ft. 

 diam., the bark thin, papery and loose: Ivs. alternate, ovate-lanceo- 

 late to lanceolate, entire or nearly so: fls. Ih in. or less long, soli- 

 tary and drooping, trimorphic. B.R. 8.57. — F. macrdntha, Hook. 

 Largest-fld. fuchsia; 4H3 in. long, pink-red, in large, drooping clus- 

 ters. Colombia, Peru. B.M. 4233. — F. microplnjlln. HBK. Dwarf, 

 small-lvd., with deep red, small axillary, drooping fls.: pretty, 

 Mex. B.R. 1269. — F. serrafifdlia, Ruiz & Pav. Fls. long-tubed, 

 speciosa-like, on drooping pedicels from the axils of the whorled Ivs., 

 pink with greenish tinge: handsome. Peru. B.M. 4174. — F, 

 simplicicaulis, Ruiz & Pav. Lvs. usually in 3's, entire: fls. crimson, 

 long and slender-tubed, in drooping clusters: resembles F. coryni- 

 bifera. Peru. B.M. 5096.— F. thymifdlia, H.B.K. To 6 ft.: Ivs. 

 small, opposite or nearly so, ovate or roundish, downy above: fls. 

 red, on axillary pedicels, the petals obovate and undulate. Mex. 

 B.R. 12S4. L. H. B. 



FUMARIA (fumus, smoke, the application perhaps 

 to the smoke-like odor of roots or other parts of some 

 species). Fumaridceie, a family by some botanists united 



with Papaveraces. This 

 genus includes the 

 common fumitory, F. 

 officinalis, formerly 

 held in great repute 

 for various ailments, 

 but now practically 

 banished from medical 

 practice. Seeds are 

 still rarely sold to 

 those who have faith 

 in old physic gardens. 

 The plant has a large 

 hterature, which is 

 especially interesting 

 to those who delight in 

 herbals. As an orna- 

 mental plant, it is 

 surpassed by Adlumia. 

 There are about 40 

 species of Fumaria in 

 the Medit. region and 

 Cent. Eu., and S. Afr.: mostly annual herbs, with 

 compound much-dissected lvs., usually diffuse and 

 branching, sometimes climbing, gLaucous: corolla 

 l-spurred at base, and thereby distinguished at once 

 from Adlumia; sepals 2, very small; petals 4; stamens 

 6, diadelphous: fr. a roundish 1-seeded indehiscent 

 nutlet. F. officinalis, Linn., the common fumitory, 

 of Eu., is sparingly run wild in waste places: 2-3 ft. 

 high: lvs. petioled, the segms. linear, oblong or cuneate 

 and entire or lobed: fls. small, flesh-color with crimson 

 tip, in narrow racemes. Variable. L. jj. B.f 



FUMITORY: Fumaria officinalis. 



FCNCKIA, FUNKIA: Hosta. 



FUNGI are plants. They differ from other plants 

 chiefly in their lack of chlorophyll, the green coloring 

 matter of green plants, and in the character of the 

 substance of which their cell-walls are composed. 

 This is sometimes spoken of as fungous cellulose, and 

 has characters both of the cellulose of other plants and 

 the chitin of insects. There are thousands of species 

 of fungi, varying greatly in form and structure. Some 

 forms are more or less famihar to everyone; for 

 example, mushrooms, or toadstools, molds, mildews 

 smuts and rusts. Other groups of plants often included 

 under the term fungi are the slime-molds or myxomy- 

 cetes and bacteria. While they have certain charac- 

 ters in common with fungi, they are sufficiently dis- 

 tinct to be considered separately. 



1606. Fuchsia triphyUa. (XhO 



1607. A f imgus. A mildew, showing 

 the mycelium in the leaf-tissue and 

 the hanging spore-bearing threads. 

 (Much magnified.) 



The fungus plant consists of a vegetative feeding 

 portion, the mj'cehum, which, in a way, corresponds 

 to the roots of higher plants, and the fruiting struc- 

 ture, the sporophore. The latter bears the reproductive 



bodies, the spores, 

 which, while much 

 sim])lcr in structure, 

 function in the same 

 way as do the seeds 

 of higher plants (Fig. 

 1607). The sporo- 

 phore is the part most 

 often observed by the 

 layman. The mush- 

 room or toadstool, 

 the puffball, the 

 smut boil on corn, 

 the white powdery 

 mildew on the grape 

 or rose, or the blue 

 mold on stale bread 

 or cheese, are almost 

 entirely the sporo- 

 phores and spore 

 masses. The myce- 

 lium is usually buried 

 in the substratum 

 from which the food 

 is derived and is thus 

 not often observed. 

 In fact it is often too 

 minute and colorless 

 to be seen with the 

 naked eye. It may 

 be observed as a 

 white branching weft 

 in the dung of mush- 

 room beds or in the leaf-mold in the forest. This form 

 is commonly spoken of as spawn. It may also be 

 seen as a white weft-like growth between the bark 

 and wood of rotting logs or dead trees, or as brown 

 leathery sheets in 

 the cracks of rot- 

 ting logs. It some- 

 times appears as 

 brown or black 

 shreds or strands 

 under the bark of 

 dying trees. This 

 form of mycelium 

 strand or rhizo- 

 morph is charac- 

 teristic of the 

 often very de- 

 structive mush- 

 room parasite of 

 trees, Ar miliaria 

 mellea. The spores 

 of fungi are min- 

 ute microscopic 

 bodies cut off from 

 the sporophores 

 for the purpose of 

 reproducing the 

 plant. They are 

 usually one- or 

 two- celled, though 

 often many-celled 

 (Fig. 1608). They 

 are often color- 

 less, though they 

 may be variously 

 tinted or colored, 

 greenish, brown, 

 black, and so on. 

 When placed in 



1608. Different spore forms of fungi. 



a. Spore-sacs with npores of the peach 

 leaf-curl fungus; 6, sport— stalk with sporea 

 of a mu.shroom; c, two spore forms of the 

 wheat-rust fungus: tl, winter -spore of 

 onion-blight parasite; c, spores of the beet 

 leaf-spot pathogen;/, spore-sac with sporea 

 of the black-knot fungus; (/, the summer- 

 spores of the brown - rot pathogen; h, 

 spores of the apple-tree canker fungus; », 

 spore of the alternaria blight fungus of 

 ginseng; ;, conidia of the late blight fungus 

 of potatoes; k, corn-smut spores. 



