104 FUNGI. 
Fr., is employed in country districts for the domestic manu- 
facture of vinegar from saccharine liquor, under the name of 
the “ vinegar plant.” It is stated that Polysaccum erassipes, 
D. C.,* is employed in the South of Europe to produce a yellow 
dye; whilst recently Polyporus sulfureus, Fr., has been recom- 
mended fora similar purpose. Agaricus muscarius, Fr., the fly- 
agaric, known to be an active poison, is used in decoction in 
some parts of Europe for the destructiou of flies and bugs. 
Probably Helotium e@ruginosum, Fr.,t deserves mention here, 
because it stains the wood on which it grows, by means of 
its diffuse mycelium, of a beautiful green tint, and the wood 
thus stained is employed for its colour in the manufacture of 
Tonbridge ware. 
This completes the list, certainly of the most important, of 
the fungi which are of any direct use to humanity as food, medi- 
cine, or in the arts. As compared with lichens, the advantage 
is certainly in favour of fungi; and even when compared with 
alge, the balance appears in their favour. In fact, it may be 
questioned whether, after all, fungi do not present a larger pro- 
portion of really useful species than any other of the crypto- 
gams; and without any desire to disparage the elegance of 
ferns, the delicacy of mosses, the brilliancy of some algx, or 
the interest which attaches to lichens, it may be claimed for 
fungi that in real utility (not uncombined with injuries as real) 
they stand at the head of the cryptogams, and in closest 
alliance with the flowering plants. 
* Barla, ‘‘ Champ. de la Nice,” p. 126, pl. 47, fig. 1L 
+ Greville, ‘Soot, Crypt. Flora,” pl. 241. 
