USKS OF FUNGI. 67 



coction to destroy bugs and flics.* Polyporus betulhiiis, when 

 dressed, makes excellent razor-strops, probably from contain- 

 ing minute crystals hard enough to act upon the steel. When 

 wood is impregnated with the spawn of Peziza ceruginosa, it 

 assumes a beautiful green tint. This is applied to various 

 ornamental uses by the turners at Tunbridge Wells. Few 

 people who admire it when manufactured, are probably aware 

 to what it owes its attraction. 



From the bright green produced in fairy-rings by the de- 

 cayed Fungi of the last year's growth, it has been suggested 

 that Fungi might form a valuable manure where they occur 

 in great abundance. If collected for this purpose, they should 

 be piled up with alternate layers of sand or light soil, to 

 absorb their abundant moisture, exactly as is done in some 

 districts with seaweed. It is, however, to be feared, that the 

 result would not pay the expense, as the solid parts bear so 

 small a proportion to the fluid. Water-weeds have been col- 

 lected as manure within my own experience, but the waste 

 was so great that they did not pay the expense of carting, 

 though, fi'om the quantity of animal matter which accom- 

 panies them, they promised well ; and for the same reason it 

 is to be feared, notwithstanding their richness in fertilizing 

 matter^ that Fungi may prove equally unprofitable. 



* For a singular account of its application to the purposes of intoxication, 

 and the eflects it produces, see Lindley's ' Vegetable Kingdom,' p. 38. A still 

 worse abuse is made by the people in West Africa of the magnificent Polyporus 

 sacer, who worship it, hke some other natural objects, as a god. 



F 2 



