308 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
vidual which adorned the woods of Sumner 
Chase! As already mentioned, it sometimes at- 
tains an enormous size, hanging down from the 
trunk of the oak like the liver of one of the geolo- 
gical monsters of the Preadamite world. Like 
the liver it is also nutritious, and forms a favourite 
article of food in Austria, though it is somewhat 
tough and acrid in taste. Another remarkable 
hapesieé of fungus, called Jew’s Ears (Hirneola 
Auricula-Fude@) from its close resemblance to the 
human ear, clings to the trunks of living trees, par- 
icularly the elder, throughout the whole autumnal 
eason. It is of a dusky or red-brown colour, 
ike the ear of a North American Indian, and is 
wrinkled with large swelling veins branching from 
the middle, where they are strongest, and somewhat 
convoluted, the upper side covered with a hoary 
velvet down, the inside smooth and darker col- 
oured. When it grows on a perpendicular stump 
or tree, it turns upwards. Another remarkable 
species, the Zremella mesenterica (Fig. 27), com- 
mon all the year round, on furze and sticks in 
woods, bears a strong resemblance to the human 
mesentery. Itis of a rich orange colour. This 
extraordinary resemblance which different fungi 
bear to the different parts of the animal body, 
served to confirm the opinion of the ancient 
botanists and herbalists, that they were animal 
