» OUTLINES OF 15KTTISH FUNGOLOGY. 



the ash and walnut^ Avhich arc commonly called Sapballs, or 

 the hard corky kinds, one of which supplies the Amadou of 

 commei-ccj but there is no general conception that the multi- 

 tudes of parasites Avhich grow on dead and living plants, fre- 

 quently inducing disease or decay, the mould which runs over 

 our fi-uit and provisions, or the yeast of beer and mother of 

 vinegar, are closely allied productions ; if, indeed, the very 

 existence of some amongst them is recognized at all. We are 

 obliged, therefore, to have recourse to the Latin language 

 for a general word to comprehend the whole tribe, which is 

 denominated Fungi. An objection, indeed, has been raised 

 to the term Fungology, which indicates a knowledge of the 

 whole tribe, as composed at the same time of a Greek and 

 Latin word. The word is however like many other spurious 

 words very generally received ; and if the objection should 

 be considered insuperable, we have but to substitute that of 

 Mycology, which is at once correct in etymology and compre- 

 hensive enough to -include all we wish. The word Fungus 

 may however in any case be retained as expressing these plants 

 in common parlance, oidy we must take care, if we do not 

 iisc the more English-looking word Fungal, not to speak, as 

 is too frequently the case, of a Fungi,"^ which is at once gra- 

 ting to the ear, and utterly intolerable. If Fungus be con- 

 sidered as an English word, as it is used indeed by some of 

 our older authors, the plural will be Funguses ; but there is 

 then something unpleasing in the sound, and the term Fungi 

 is certainly to be preferred. f 



* As, for example, in Phillips's Prize Essay on the Potato Murrain, Joum. 

 of Royal Agricultural Society, vol. vii. p. 309. 



t The French word Champignon was originally scarcely of wider significa- 

 tion than our word Mushroom, though now classical in the sense of Fungi ge- 

 nerally. The German word P'dz (a corruption of Boletm) is used to denote 

 the softer kinds, while Sckirnmm generally denotes such Fungi as Polypori. 



