Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/102

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beds. At whatever time of the year this is taken up, it fhould be carefully laid up in a dry place till the month of July fol- lowing, which is the proper time for planting it in new beds. Miller's Gardener's Diet.

The vail variety of known Fungufes which are found regularly every feafon in their proper foils, are not all that the naturahft has to enquire into the nature of; there are others whofe pro- ductions are much more furprizing. Thefe are fuch as are only feen once or twice in an age, and that in places where it is very difficult to account for the manner of their production. One of thefe we had fome years ago, which appeared upon an eld piece of wood in a blackfmith's cellar in the Hay-maiket, and grew to twelve inches or more in height ; and, when cut down, appeared again at the fame time the next year, and fo on for feveral fuccceding years, as if, contrary to the nature of the generality of thefe plants, it had a perennial root, and grew regularly from the old ftock. This appeared to us a An- gular production, and a wholly new fpecies ; but fo long ago as in the year i 692, Mr. Tournefort found fuch a one growing on an old beam in the abbey at St. Germains. His defcription ofitis very accurate; and its refemblancewith ours as great as could be expected, in fo loofe a growing plant as an irregular Fungus. It was compufed of a duffer of five large and thick leaves, and made fume what of the appearance of the tympa- num of the capital of a Corinthian pillar, but in a coarfe way ; it was about fix inches high, and nine inches wide ; and each leaf or part was about half an inch in thicknefs. They were all very l'olid, and capable of continuing a long time without decay. They all arufe from the fame bafe, and forming pe- dicles feparately, they again united, and made a broad and beautiful affemblage of joined leaves to the top. They ex- panded a little above this joining, each into the figuie of a deer's horn; and at the edges were fo cut and finuated, that they not unaptly refembled the leaves of certain cut and curled cabbages, common in our gardens ; they were of a pale ycl- lowifb colour, like that of buff~!eather, and had a border of a ffronger yellow about their outer edge ; the internal fub- ftance was white, and very hard and firm, though light, and was pierced in different places with a vaft number of holes, many of which were large, and refembled tbofe of a fpunge or pumice ; thefe all had apertures on the furface of the leaves ; and thefe apertures, when examined with a microfcope, were found to be furrounded with a wrinkled rim, covered with a very fine and fubtil powder, the greater part of the grains of which hung to a fine filament, and might be taken for the feed of the plant. 7 he back-fide of the leaf was more fmooth and glofiy than the other. It had feveral ribs, which run out into ramifications, that might eafily be traced by the eye to their extremities at the edges of the leafs 2nd this part of the leaf was in many places covered with a fort of tartarous cruft, which feemed to be a fort of placenta or ovary ; but on ex- amination there appeared no rudiments of feeds in it. The beam on which this Mujljroom grew was very firm and found in all other places, but juft where it was rooted there was a crack out of which moifture ouzed ; and probably the beam was in that part rotten, or worm-eaten within. The fmell of the plant was like that of others of the fame kind, and an ini'uhon of a piece of it turned an infulion of turnfol to a bright red ; fo that it manifeftly abounded in acids. It is not eafy to account for the appearance of thefe plants which are feen fo rarely, and that in places where no plant could be ex- pected to grow : the only probable folution of the point feems this, that as the feeds of the Mujhroom kind are all very mi- nute, and generally in thefe fpecies which have no lamellated heads, cover the whole furface of the leaves, the number of feeds produced by one fuch plant muft be numerous beyond all account, and at the fame time light enough to float about in the air. Thefe muft be at times thrown againft a thoufand different bodies where there is no proper nourilhment for them, and muft therefore perifh ; whereas if many accidents are re- quired to concur, to make a foil proper for it to grow in, wherever fuch foil happens to be produced, as the air has free accefs every where, it is not impoflible but that, at one time or other, cne of thefe fmall feeds may. happen to be pro- perly depofited. Mem. Acad. Par. 1692. The Laplanders have a way of ufing Fungufes, or common toadftools, as we call them, as the Chinefe and Japonefe do the moxa, to cure pains. They coiled the large Fungufes which they find on the bark of beech and other laro-e trees, and dry them for ufe. Whenever they have pains in their limbs, they bruife fome of this dried matter, and pulling it to pieces with their fingers, they lay a fmall heap of it on the part neareft to where the pain is (ituated, and fet it on fire. In burning away, it blifters up the part, and the water, dif- charged by this means, .generally carries otTthe pain. 'Tis a coarfe and rough method, but generally a very fuccefsful one, cfpecially when the patient has prudence enough to applv it \ in time, and refolution enough to bear the burning to a ne- ceflary degree. Mushrooms growing out of Flints. Naturalifts have of long time obferved, that there are fea Fungufes of a very different fubftanceand ftru&ure from any uf the common kinds, grow- ing on rocks, ftones and corals, 01 other itrung fea plants,

which feem wholly incapable of fupplying them with any ve- getable nourilhment. Thefe have been fuppofed to be as it were all root, and to take in their nourishment at every part of their furface from the circumambient water : But in the year 1739 Mr. Alefeld obferved a like fort of Fungufes grow- ing in places where they had no ambient fluid to attoid them nourifhment, except the air, and yet were fixed upon as un- promifing a bans for the fupplying them with any, as thofe of the fea. Thefe were found on common flints on the iurface of the earth. This gentleman obferved, that a great many various fpecies of flints which lay in part buried in the earth, and in part lying above its furface, were on this open part co- vered with a fort of white duft. This was in July, and in hot dry weather. Having the curiouty to examine this dutt with a microfcope, every particle of it was found to be a corn- pleat and perfect Fungus, all of the fame determinate figure, and much refembling the common earth Mujhrooms. They were white in colour, and had each a very fhort pedicle, in many, fcarce to be feen at all ; their head was round and umbilicated, and very elegantly and evenly ftriated on the upper part, the ftria? or furrows all running from the center to the circum- ference ; and the rim of each head being a little elevated. Upon the whole, they not unaptly refembled in miniature a common tea-cup inverted, and the faucer inverted alio, and placed upon it. ;The fubftance of thefe Fungufes was of two kinds, the one furnifhed a cortical part or covering, and the other filled up the whole internal fpace.

The internal part was foft and fpongy, and much like what the infide of the common Mujhroom is : this was white. The outer or cortical part was reddifh, and rather represented a congeries of fmall grains of fand, collected into that form by fome glutinous matter, than any folid or continuous body. The thin external coat of this being removed, there were feem within it a multitude of fmall round globules pf glofiy furfaces, reflecting the light in manner of fome of the ripe fmooth Cum- mer fruits, fuch as the cherry, and the like. This was their appearance when frefhly uncovered ; but after they had been expofed fome time to the air, they became flaccid, fell almoft fiat together, and were umbilicated and marked with rays from a center like thofe of a ftar.

Thefe Fungufes, if not injured by. accidents, remain En their perfect ftatc a long time upon the ftones. Five months keep- ing produces no alteration in them ; but at length they become flaccid and wither, and in this itate are not to be recovered by water, as many of the common land Fungufes will, which, fwell, and for a time appear plump on being wetted. They grate harfhly like ftony matter between the teeth, and rcfift the force of acid menftruums ; they bear the great degrees of heat or cold without any injury ; but if they are expofed to a flame, the outer covering of the head burfts and flies off, and thefe red globules come in full fight, while the reft of the Fungus remains unaltered. The fame effect is produced by plunging them into hot water ; and if they be boiled in water, over a ftrong fire, the globules are d'iflodged and loft in it. If the flints on which they are produced, are heated red hot, the Fungufes are deftroyed, and wholly difappear in the places where they were ; only the fragments of the outer covering of the head remaining fcattered, on different parts of the ftone, like pieces of broken pots or glaffes : thefe fragments lofe their red colour, and are found grey. On the whole, it appears from thefe experiments, that the cortical part of this Fungus is not of the nature of common vegetable matter, but is truly ftony ; fo that the plant may be properly arranged among a fet of lytbo- phyta, or ftone plants, properly fo called. The author of this curious difcovery obferves, that he ufually found many fmall red infects running about upon thefe ftones, and among the clufters ot Fungufes. Thefe afforded at leafta proper re- treat or nidus for them, if not foods for it is poflible the in- ternal part of the Fungufes might be eaten by them. Act. Eruditor. Ann. 1739.

BqfardMu shroom. See the article Fungoides.

Pepper Mushroom. See the article Pepper.

Mushroom Galls, in natural hiftory, a name given by authors to a finall fpecies of galls very common on the leaves of the oak in September and October, ana refembling the common ef- culent Mujhroom. They are placed on the upper furface of the leaf, and are often in great numbers on the fame leaf, fome containing twenty or thirty, and others only three or four. The leaves which have confiderable numbers upon them, make a very beautiful figure, and appear as if orna- mented by art with a number of elegant figures. Thefe galls are ufually about a fixteenth, though fometimes a tenth of an inch in the diameter ; they are compofed of an orbicular head, which adheres to the leaf by a very fhort pedicle, fo that its edges, which droop a little in the manner of thofe of the common Mujhroom, ufually touch the furface of the leaf all round. Thefe little galls are of various colours, according to their different degrees of maturity j they are of a greenifh white at firft, after that they become of a yellowUh tinge, from which they pafs through all the fhades of orange and flame colour, to a very beautiful red, which is always their colour when perfectly mature. When they are obferved by the microfcope, their furface appears hairy, and the feveral I hairs