19 
and the rough vine leaves of the WHITE (a), and its 
lovely corkscrew tendrils, laying so deftly hold of every 
bough year by year. — Besides, the blossoms of the 
black bryony are little green stars, six stamens on some 
plants, three pistils in the others — while the white bry¬ 
ony has much larger and paler flowers, light green veined 
with darker. The stamen-bearing flowers are the largest, 
and each contain two pairs of stamens and one odd one, 
the fertile flowers are on separate plants with three yellow 
styles. The berries of the black bryony are purple, those 
of the white are red. Both have large tuberous roots, 
and die down to the ground every winter, shooting up 
again in the spring, and winding themselves gracefully 
over all the adjoining bushes. They are both very acrid 
and poisonous, so much so that the root of the black 
was in former times crushed and used for a blister. 
The white bryony root was sometimes cut into a shape like a 
man’s figure, and called a mandrake ; but it is now seldom 
used except by old women, who consider it a cure for 
black eyes. Discoveries in medicine have put a stop to 
the curious practice of country herbalists, and these 
plants are chiefly esteemed as the graceful climbing' orna¬ 
ments of our woods in summer and early Autumn. 
PLATE XXVII. — FUNGI. 
The Fungus tribe belong to the great race with secret fructifi¬ 
cation and only powerful microscopes and close observation 
have brought any thing to light as to their parts. It would 
seem that they, like lichens and mosses have invisible 
seeds, in almost invisible purses, which purses are always 
under a fleshy cap, that grows up from a strange cob¬ 
webby matter, and expands into different forms — more 
as it would appear according to the condition of the air, 
light and heat around than according to the nature of the 
parent plant. The handsomest and most developed of the 
fungus tribe are the AGARICS — the MUSHROOMS or 
TOADSTOOLS. — They spring up from a cobwebby sub¬ 
stance, raising at first a little round knob, within which 
the stalk is gradually formed. By and by, the outer 
skin bursts, and leaves a fleshy stem supporting’ an 
equally fleshy cap, which gradually enlarging, tears the 
lower skin which united it to the column, and opens like 
an umbrella, or like a round table, flat and smooth above, 
and beneath divided into a number of rays or gills di¬ 
verging from the central column and containing’ between 
them the purses of seeds. These Agarics come up in 
great quantities, and very suddenly wherever they find 
sufficient damp and heat, and they fertilize the grass 
so much as to mark the turf with the greener rings of 
verdure where the fairies were thought to dance nightly 
— and the round heads of the Agarics were pretty tables 
for their midnight revelry, well fitted for their acorn cups 
of dew. The Agarics are sometimes wholesome, some¬ 
times fatally mischievous, but much depends upon the 
climate and conditions of their growth, so that what can 
safely be eaten in one country are dangerous in another. 
The only one regarded with much favour in England is the 
common MUSHROOM Cfig. a) or champignon, a very pretty 
plant, white above and the gills rosecoloured, turning 
brown or purple as it grows older. Damp and heat are 
pretty certain to bring it up on any down or pasture where 
there has been tolerable manure -— first the little white 
buttons, and then the soft graceful head, so bright and 
fresh looking and full of delicious and peculiar scent. It is 
a pleasant thing to fill a basket with mushrooms, and as 
long as the gills are pink, and the odour right, there is 
little danger of a blunder. — Sometimes indeed under 
trees or in the borders of fields, there is found an im¬ 
mense mushroom, with gills more lightly coloured, and 
inclined to turn black, called by Botanists AGARICUS 
GEORG1I, and by cooks, horse mushroom, and much des¬ 
pised by the latter, but there is no harm in them, they 
only have not so good a flavour, and they may safely be 
made into catsup. 
The Beautiful ELY AGARIC (/) with its crimson cap, dotted 
with white, and its snowy gills, has all the brilliance of 
a beast of prey, and rightly so, for it is full of poison 
and has been the death of many who have been foolish 
enough to eat it. In Kamschatka, it is dried and swallowed 
whole, when it produces a state like that caused by 
opium, and it also is used to make an intoxicating liquor 
mixed with the juice of the vaccinium. But in the pine 
woods of Eng’land and Scotland, where it raises its crim¬ 
son head, we are content to admire its gorgeous beauty 
in the sunshine, and regard it as the throne of state of 
some imperial toad, if such there be. 
The Modest CHANTARELLE ( b ) grows in a vase like form, 
the cap hollowed inwardly, and sometimes scalloped at 
the edge. It is buff yellow, and grows in mountainous 
woods, on the Continent where it is much prized. — And 
so much g-atliered that the Germans have 24 different 
names for it, and the French 14, while here in England 
people are afraid of it, and have scarcely one name for it, 
except that in some counties it is said to be called pixie 
stool, from the pixies or fairies who were thought to de¬ 
light in its haunts. It is said that when dried the sauce 
is like ripe apricots. 
THE MORELL (c) has a round head, with cells instead of 
gills, and grows in sandy places, near streams, and espe¬ 
cially where fires have been. — Indeed at one time, the 
German peasantry would burn their woods to make the 
morells come up, but as this plan was rather like that of 
burning a farm to roast a sucking pig, the practice was 
forbidden by law. The truffle which grows under ground 
and is scented out by dogs or pigs is the only other fun¬ 
gus often eaten. — It is one of those which carry on their 
fructification within their fleshy cases, and of which there 
are far too many to describe. There is the great white 
puffball, full of powder, and dried for the purpose of be¬ 
ing burnt that the vapour maiy stifle wasps or bees. There 
are also many other curious sorts, of which the rarest and 
prettiest is the GEASTER or EARTH STAR ( d ), whieh 
grows underground, until nearly ripe, when the round 
head pushes above ground, opens in the middle, and shews 
a fringe of short threads rising upwards like a crown, bet¬ 
ween which the seeds escape. The star which was the 
outer case of this globe, lies back on the ground divided 
into regular segments, most beautiful in its symmetry. 
If shape is the beauty of the Geaster, colour is the glory of 
the PEZIZA, or fairy bath, the beautiful little scarlet 
cup that grows up on dead sticks by damp hedge sides in 
the winter. That in the plate (e), is a giant, they are 
seldom nearly as large as an acorn cup, but the crimson 
velvet of the lining is beyond measure exquisite, and con¬ 
trasts with the furry pink outside, and the dark rotten 
stick on which grows this bright little winter jewel. 
The flat horned SPHERIA ( g ) is a grey branched fungus to 
be found on dead sticks and stumps doing its work of 
fertilizing for better thing’s. — Its fructification may be 
seen by cutting the mottled part through with a sharp 
knife, when a microscope will shew the little black seed 
purses, each furnished with a pore to let out the seeds. 
PLATE XXVIII. — FRUITS. 
It is a sudden change to make from poisons to fruits, from 
medicine to enjoyment, but both are alike prepared for 
us by our merciful Father who made every plant whose 
seed is in itself, and every herb of the field before it 
grew. Fruits are really an enlargement of the germ or 
receptacle which becomes fleshy or pulpy and is filled 
with water, sugar, albumen, and acid, which are, if left 
to themselves intended to serve for the nourishment of 
the seeds. But the seeds will usually grow without this 
fleshy case, and such creatures as eat the fruit usually 
throw away the seed, so that it has a chance of growing, 
and besides it has been bounteously appointed that all 
these fruits should be produced in far greater quantities 
than are needed to keep up the stock. 
The first here drawn belong to a race not native to England, 
the Gourd or pumpkin kind. These are Annual plants, 
with a weak trailing stem, provided with long crokscrew 
tendrils by which to take fast hold of any support, large 
pinnate leaves, shaped like those of the hop or vine, 
yellow blossoms of one petal, some containig five hand¬ 
some stamens, others a large button-like stigma, and 
beneath (not above like the poisons) a large swelling 
germ, which germ most rapidly swells into a large 
fruit, with a stout rind outside, and a quantity of soft 
