Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/540

 528 FUNERAL RITES FUNGI number of small islands which come under its administration. It is the largest of the Danish isles after Seeland, and forms with the islands W. of the Great Belt, including Langeland and Arro, a circle of the kingdom. The coast is not very elevated, but is in general rugged and steep, and much indented by bays and arms of the sea. The interior toward the west is somewhat hilly ; in every other direction it is composed of large and fruitful plains, which produce abundant crops of corn. The largest stream in the island is the Odense Aa, which has a northerly course of 36 m., and dis- charges into the Odense fiord, about 9 m. long, and from 1|- to nearly 5 m. wide. A canal, navigable by vessels drawing 8 ft., con- nects the town of Odense with the Odense fiord. The largest lake is the Arreskov, which is about 7 m. in circuit, and abounds in fish. Funen is divided into the bailiwicks of Odense, which contains the capital, of the same name, and Svendborg. FUNERAL RITES. See BUEIAL. FUNES, Gregorio, an Argentine historian, born in Cordova, died there in 1820. He was edu- cated at Cordova, entered holy orders, became dean in the cathedral church, and attempted to introduce into the university the study of the higher mathematics, the law of nations, the modern languages, music, and drawing. Du- ring the revolutionary tumults the possessions of his father were confiscated by the royalist party. He wrote Ensayo de la Mstoria civil del Paraguay, Buenos Ayres y Tucuman (3 vols. small 4to, Buenos Ayres, 1816 et seq. which contains an excellent epitome of the annals of a vast territory, of which but lit- tle was yet known in Europe. FUNFKIRCHEN (five churches ; in Hungarian Pecs, which in the language of the surrounding Slavic tribes means five), a town of Hungary, capital of the county of Baranya, 105 m. S. S. W. of Buda ; pop. in 1870, 17,447. It is sur- rounded by rich vineyards, in the vicinity of mineral springs, and is one of the pleasantest towns of Hungary. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, and has an old Gothic cathe- dral, built on the site of a Roman castle, two monasteries, a public library, several schools and hospitals, and a theatre. The population consists chiefly of Magyars, but the Slavic and German inhabitants are also numerous. The town has a large trade in coal, alum, vitriol, wine, grain, tobacco, rape seed, wool, and other products of the neighboring country. Fiinf- kirchen is supposed to be the Colonia Serbinum of the Romans. In the time of Hungarian in- dependence it was larger and much more im- portant than now. History mentions that 2,000 of its students marched out to the battle field of Mohacs, where the Hungarians were de- feated by the Turks under Solyman, Aug. 29, 1526. This sultan passed some time at Fiinf- kirchen, during the siege of the fortress of Szigeth, and was so delighted with the place that he called it a paradise on earth. It re- mained in the hands of the Mussulmans from 1543 till 1686. FlINGI (Gr. o-Ttdyyof, a sponge), an extensive family of cryptogamic plants, generally known under the names of mushrooms, toadstools, rusts, smuts, bunt, and mildews. With rare exceptions, they are parasitic plants, growing upon and drawing their nourishment (or at least a part of it) from the substance of the ob- ject they infest. Fungi occur in all parts of the globe, finding their maximum in the moist temperate zones ; abounding in a climate like that of Sweden, which has produced more spe- cies upon a given area than any other known locality, except perhaps the southern United States. They are found wherever there is de- caying vegetation, upon which they feed ; they often prey upon living tissues, which they de- stroy by their attacks ; their vegetating fibres are of such extreme minuteness that they pene- trate the hardest woods, and powerfully hasten their decay. Nothing of vegetable origin is free from their ravages when exposed to influences favorable to their growth. They are found also on animal dejections, on insects, whose death they cause, on the human skin, and even on bare stones, on iron which was in a forge a few hours before, on lead, and on chemical so- lutions. The disease in silkworms is caused by a mould (botrytis bassiana). The flies found adhering to windows in autumn, fixed by the proboscis, are destroyed by a mould (sporendo- nema muscce), which produces the little white rings between the abdominal segments and dis- charges its seed upon the glass around like a little cloud. The celebrated caterpillar fungus of New Zealand (cordyceps Robertsii), which infests the caterpillar of hepialus mrescens, is a remarkable instance. American caterpillars are destroyed by other species. The larva of the common May beetle (lachnosterna quer- cina), which passes three years of its destruc- tive life under ground, is sometimes attacked by a fungus which soon causes its death. Ony- gena equina grows on the hoofs and horns of animals. Some of the microscopic species cause cutaneous disorders in the human system, and others have been found in the brains of birds. (See EPIPHYTES.) Notwithstanding the long time which has been given to the study of fungi, there is no class of organized structures so little known. Their microscopic character, their abnormal growths, their polymorphic forms, have baffled the researches of the closest observers. It is only within a comparatively short time that an approach has been made to a clear insight into their laws of growth and reproduction. Some even now deem them to be of spontaneous or chemical origin, an opin- ion which their sudden appearance in vast numbers after a long rest, and their occurrence in closed cavities, have tended to establish. But this idea has been clearly disproved. That they are perfect plants, growing from and re- producing bodies analogous to seeds, is too firmly established to be questioned. When