232 FUNGI. 
have not suffered much in this country from parasites. Besides 
these, there are many other less troublesome parasites, such as 
Uredo filisum, ou ferns; Puccinia Lychnidearum, on leaves of 
sweet-william ; Uredo Orchidis, on leaves of orchids, &e. 
If we would sum up the influences of fungi in a few words, it 
could be done somewhat in the following form. 
Fungi exert a deleterious influaence— 
On Jfan, 
Wheu eaten inadvertently. 
By the destruction of his legitimate food. 
In producing or aggravating skin diseases. 
On Animals, 
By deteriorating or diminishing their food supplics. 
By establishing themselves as parasites on some species. 
On Plants, 
By hastening the decay of timber. 
By establishing themselves as parasites. 
By impregnating the soil. 
But it is not proved that they produce epidemic diseases in 
man or animals, or that the dissemination of their multitudinous 
spores in the atmosphere has any appreciable influence on the 
health of the human race. Jence their association with cholera, 
diarrhoea, measles, scarlatina, and the manifold ills that flesh is 
heir to, as producing or aggravating causes, must, in the present 
state of our knowledge and experience, be deemed apocryphal. 
