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Cryptogams or Flowerless Plants — Fungi. 
In Truffle (Tuber), a species with the entire plant subterranean, the spores are contained in tubular sporanges or 
asci, usually 4 or 8 in each sporange. These sporanges clothe the surface of the reproductive layer, the convolutions 
of which give the fleshy tissue of the Truffle a marbled appearance. The spores are liberated by the pulverulent 
breaking up of the Truffle. 
In the common Blue Mould ( Penieillaria ) covering decaying pasty or semifluid substances the spores are borne 
in minute necklace-like threads, radiating from the extremity of erect filamentous stalks. Each of the excessively 
minute cells of the moniliform threads is a spore capable of developing a new plant. 
USES, &c. — Although the Order generally is suspicious, and many of the species dangerous or actually 
poisonous, yet a considerable number may, if sound, be cooked and eaten with impunity. Mushroom (. Agaricus 
campestris) is the only species cultivated for food in Britain. A few other species of the same genus are esculent, 
but should be selected with care, especially avoiding all specimens with a disagreeable smell or taste. Other familiar 
edible species are Truffles ( Tuber melanosporum and allies) and Morells ( Morchella esculenta). 
Amadou or German tinder is prepared from Polyporus igniarius and allies by soaking thin slices in a solution 
of nitre. Ergot of Rye ( Sphacelia ), used in medicine, is developed upon the ovary of the Rye flower, which it at length 
obliterates, and projects from the glumes. 
Many Fungi under circumstances favourable to their development are very injurious, destroying enormous 
quantities of agricultural and horticultural produce, timber, and miscellaneous organic substances. Amongst the 
more noxious are Mildews, Smuts and Bunt of Corn, Blight of Hops, the various Moulds and Dry-rot, and the 
Fungi infesting the Potato and Vine. Many of these defy extirpation, from the rapidity of their development and 
multiplication and the excessive minuteness of their spores, which cannot be excluded by any mechanical 
contrivance. 
