Report on Botany. 



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39 



held in England. At a gathering of the Perthshire Natu- 

 ral History Society, it is said that after the literary pro- 

 ceedings were ended the society adjourned to the hotel 

 and took dinner. This consisted of different species of 

 edible fungi prepared in various ways. The dishes most 

 relished are stated to have been Boletus edidis, Coprinus 

 comatus and Agaricus campestris. This immediate and eco- - 

 nomical application of the results of scientific investigations 

 certainly gives them an appreciable and very practical 

 value. At a meeting of another natural history society, 

 some fungi were on exhibition, among which was a re- 

 markably large specimen of Polyporus frondosus, weighing 

 fourteen and a half pounds, a fact having not only scientific 

 interest but also a practical one, for this species too is edible. 



In September Prof. Huxley delivered a very interesting 

 address before the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, from which address we learn th^t the theory 

 of the fungoid origin of many contagious and infectious 

 diseases is gradually assuming definite form and attracting 

 the attention of earnest and able minds. From actual ex- 

 periment it has been found that healthy flies, shut up with 

 diseased ones, become affected in like manner from the 

 attacks of the disease producing fungus. A similar origin 

 to fatal diseases of other insects is well established. From 

 this the learned professor frankly admits that he knows 

 no reason why disease in higher animals may not be pro- 

 duced by similar minute agencies. It will at once be seen 

 that in this direction lies a vast field for the investigation 

 of botanists and medical men ; here is the vestibule of a 

 great labyrinth of mysteries whose intricate windings will 

 require much patient labor of many acute intellects to un- 

 ravel, but it is very evident that the successful accomplish- 

 ment of the task will be fraught with results of the highest 

 importance to the human race. 



