FUNGI. 413 
tacles, that the smallest breath of air or the least 
brush of an insect’s wing carries them off to other 
grapes, to infect these with a similar blight. 
I may remark here by way of parenthesis, that 
fungi have a special and inordinate predilection 
for the produce of the vine in all the stages of its 
history and manufacture. One species, as we have 
seen, luxuriates on the grape; another fungoid 
form is concerned in the process of fermentation, 
and the consequent resolution of the grape juice 
into an alcoholic product ; a third, as already men- 
tioned, frequents, like a Bacchic gnome or con- 
vivial Guy Fawkes, the vaults where wine is 
stored up, forming a most remarkable and pic- 
turesque feature in that vast temple of Silenus— 
the London Docks—hanging down in immense 
festoons from the roof of the crypt, swaying and 
wavering with the least motion of the air like 
dingy cobwebs. Private cellars are not unfre- 
quently drained dry by a host of thirsty vegetable 
topers in the shape of huge fleshy fungi, developed 
by the moist, dark atmosphere of the place, and 
the rich pabulum of saccharine food which they 
find there. The bottle of port brought up to 
table, whose venerable appearance the host eyes 
affectionately, and the guest with eager expecta- 
tion, sometimes affords a melancholy illustration 
of the vanity of earthly hopes. A cunning fungus 
