328 Mr. Watterstoii' s Address before the 



steeping the seed in brandy and sowing it in a hot-bed. 

 The mnshxooui fungus derived its name, he said, from the 

 Greek sjwggos. or spongy, and its common name from the 

 French, inoiisseron. It is ranked in the lowest order of 

 vegetables, and is thought to assimilate very closely to the 

 animal creation. " The animal flavor of the esculent 

 mushroom," says the authoress of Sketches of the Physiol- 

 ogy of Vegetable Life, "and the odour of any kind of fun- 

 gus when burned, resembles that of burning feathers ; ad- 

 ded to the putrefaction to which the Avhoie tribe are sub- 

 ject, and the scent emitted by them in that state, do not 

 exclude them from the vegetable kind, but alford additional 

 analogical evidence of the affinity between the two king- 

 doms." The mushroom, however, produces seed by which 

 they are propagated. These are called the spcavii, a white, 

 mouldy and fibrous substance. Some think that the whole 

 mushroom is but one flower, coming out of the earth as a 

 bud, which protects the interior with a veil, until it is 

 ready for fructification, when it expands like other flowers. 

 This vegetable was thought by the ancients to be one of 

 the wonders of nature, because they lived and grew with- 

 out a root, and shot up without any opening in the earth, 

 and without being sown. They were considered in the 

 dark ages as the work of fairies. The Romans esteemed 

 them as a great luxury, and the most luxurious dressed 

 them with their own hands. It was brought into disuse in 

 Rome after the death of Tiberius Claudius, by Agripina, 

 who is said to have poisoned him with tliis vegetable. 

 Lord Bacon says that -'mushrooms cause the accident which 

 we call incubus^ or mare in the stomach, and therefore the 

 surfeit of them may suffocate and empoison." They are 

 now used as a delicious food, and cultivated in England 

 to a great extent. They can be raised by seed, or prop- 

 agated by roots, which resemble the tubers of the pota- 

 toe. In England, they are raised in houses, growing on 

 shelves made of plank or stone, covered with rich earth. 

 A small slied was large enough to supply the demand 

 of a moderate family. If poisoned by them, the symp- 

 toms are first hiccup, then a cold shivering and chilli- 

 ness over the whole body, and finally convulsions and 

 death. The weight to which mushrooms attain is often 

 enormous, some having been found weighing 30 lbs., some 

 100 lbs. each, and it is asserted that some were found grow- 



