362 



MY GARDEN. 



at some places, but not at my garden, and is said to be edible when 

 young. I have been assured that, cut in slices and fried, it is 

 excellent, but I have never tried it myself. 



Fig. 839.— Giant Puff-ball. 



Fig. 841.— Dacrymyces sdllatus 

 and Sporophores, magniiied. 



Fig. 840. — Phallus impudicus 

 (Fruit X 700 diam.). 



I am not certain whether the Phallus impudicus (fig. 840) has ever 

 appeared in my garden, but I have seen it in quantities in the month 

 of August at the Kew pleasure-grounds. If cut in half, both parts 

 continue to grow in a damp atmosphere. When mature, it exhales 

 the most disturbingly offensive effluvium. 



Some fungi dry up, and swell again when moistened by rain. This . 

 is the case with the Dacrymyces stillatus (fig. 841). One day I passed 

 one of my bridges, when no fungus was apparent. A little rain fell, 

 when on crossing the bridge a few minutes afterwards the woodwork 

 was found to be covered with this species of fungus. 



Many species of fungi grow upon the living leaves of plants, and 

 do much injury to them. In early spring the leaves of our violets 

 are affected with a fungus called the JEcidium violce (fig. 842), which, 

 on examination, proves to consist of beautiful cups. At my garden 

 only a few leaves have been attacked by it, and I never knew 

 extensive damage to arise from it. 



During the spring of 1871 an aecidium was noticed on one of our 

 Portugal quince trees, which had been some years in my garden. 

 It has been pronounced by Mr. Worthington Smith to be Aicidium 

 cydonicB (fig. 843), a species new to this country, though known to 

 foreign fungologists. 



