186 The Beneficial and Injurious Influences of Fungi. 



matter of plants ; thus they are unable to elaborate their 

 food from inorganic matter and can only subsist as parasites 

 or saprophytes on organic substances. 



The economic value of Fungi is of greater importance to 

 mankind than that of any of the other classes of Cryptogamia, 

 although they are generally supposed to militate for injury 

 rather than for benefit. Certainly in many ways Fungi are 

 injurious to man, but the good services they render balance 

 their occasional devastations. Truly Fungi may be rightly 

 called ' Nature's Refuse Destructors,' for they have the power 

 of reducing to the natural elements the accumulations of 

 non-living vegetable and animal substances, which, but for 

 these powers of operation would soon render many parts of 

 the world untenantable. 



The spores of Fungi are so small and light that they float 

 in the air in considerable quantities, and the work of des- 

 truction at once commences when the spores alight on material 

 forming a suitable nidus, given the requisite amount of moisture 

 and warmth. 



Their power of multiplication is enormous (much greater 

 than that of any other class of organisms), and when their 

 allotted task is accomplished they swiftly disappear after 

 running their life's course, diffusing their spores in the atmos- 

 phere ready again for similar destructive work, like the com- 

 parison of motor and horse traction, where the former only 

 requires feeding when active service is required, and the latter 

 needing food whether at work or at rest, so the Fungi spring 

 suddenly into existence when their services are required, 

 complete their work of destruction, and then returning to their 

 latent unnoticed state, ready, however, at a moments warning, 

 again to be developed. 



Other benefits which mankind derive from Fungi may be 

 mentioned : (i.) Their value as a food supply ; (ii.) Their uses 

 in medicine ; and (hi.) In the arts of brewing, cheesemaking, 

 tanning, &c. 



That the ancients were acquainted with the food value of 

 Fungi is proved by allusions to the same in many of the classical 

 writings. The botanical remains of Theophrastus (d. B.C. 

 287), contain several references to Boleti (under which name 

 all large fungi went) describing iheir forms, habitats and 

 qualities. Nicander, the poet-physician, who flourished a 

 century later, in his work on ' Poisons and their Antidotes,' 

 enumerates several species of fungi which were considered to 

 be poisonous, the growth of which he attributes to ' fermenta- 

 tion,' and recommending amongst other remedies a mustard 

 emetic for those who had inadvertently eaten poisonous 

 Fungi. 



The ' Materia Medica ' of Dioscorides (circa A.D. 50) 



Naturalist, 



