60 



CHAPTER IX. 



USES OF FUNGI. 



Fungi perform an important office in the economy of Na- 

 ture, though they do not tend, like other plants, to keep 

 up the balance between the animal and vegetable world as 

 regards the supply of oxygen, which they tend to diminish 

 rather than to replace. They, hoAvever, not only afford a sup- 

 ply of nutriment to hundreds of living beings, but by their 

 fermentative and putrefactive powers, as well as their living 

 so often at the expense of the hardest vegetable structures, 

 which they tend to decompose, they prepare a rich supply of 

 vegetable mould for future generations, besides destroying 

 those structures which have already performed their func- 

 tions, and are merely cumbering the surface of the earth. 



As Fungi are in general highly nitrogenous vegetables, it is 

 probable, a priori, if they contain no poisonous or injurious 

 element, and are not disagreeable in taste, that they will form 

 an acceptable and nutritious article of food. Experience shows 

 this to be the case ; for not only do savage tribes like the 

 Fuegians adopt certain species as their staple food during 

 many months, but in a considerable part of Europe Fungi are 

 largely consumed when fresh, and preserved in casks for win- 

 ter use. It should seem that, for this latter purpose, such 



