Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/542

 530 FUNGI mere specks to masses some feet in girth. Their rapid growth is astonishing. Puff-balls sometimes grow 6 in. in diameter in a night. Masses of paper pulp thrown out hot from a vat have been found within 24 hours filled and swollen with a species of agaricus. Schweinitz records the growth of a species of cethalium found on a piece of iron which was heated the night before in a forge. Some of the ephemeral coprini grow up in a night and melt away in the morning sun. Other species, like ihepoly- porij grow very slowly and add a new layer every year, covering that of the previous sea- son. Their expansive force in growing is very great. Notwithstanding their soft, yielding texture, agarics are able to raise heavy stones under which they spring up; Bulliard tells of a phallus which burst a glass vessel in which it had been confined ; and a case came under the writer's observation in which a puff-ball broke up through an asphalt walk that had been long established and well hardened. Their sudden occurrence over wide districts depends upon peculiar states of the atmosphere favorable to the development of the spores. They generally appear in the greatest abundance in moist au- tumn weather, though some are found wher- ever there is moisture. Some depend so much on peculiar states of the atmosphere that they appear suddenly and then disappear for a while. The pustular forms, however, which abound on the dead bark of trees, shrubs, old stumps, and fallen twigs, are more dura- ble from their more solid structure. Some spe- cies of agaricus possess a remarkable luminos- ity, and certain rhizomorphce growing in mines shed a phosphorescent light of extreme bril- liancy. Fungi differ from flowering plants in their chemical influence upon the air. They absorb oxygen and exhale carbonic acid, per- forming the same office in this respect as ani- mals, which they most resemble in chemical composition, in being highly azotized. The odors they emit in decay are more like putres- cent animal than vegetable matter. The fleshy sorts generally possess a peculiar earthy odor, but some species of phallus and clathrus emit a most intolerably offensive stench, which will render a close apartment untenantable. Oth- ers, on the contrary, are very agreeable to the smell, and some in drying acquire a fine aroma. They are quite as variable to the taste. The prevailing flavor is rather negative and peculiar to the order ; but they are also bitter, acrid, biting, astringent, oily, and nauseous, as well as savory and agreeable. Most of them lose these qualities in drying. Fungi have been used as an article of food from remote anti- quity. The writings of the ancients make fre- quent mention of them as among their most esteemed viands. They are extensively eaten in Europe by all classes, and many works have been written laudatory of their virtues, with copious directions for dressing them in a great variety of ways. Notwithstanding the virulent poisonous qualities of some, others are eagerly sought for, and in some places it is said that the people have burned down woods to get certain species of fungi whose growth followed the combustion. Within a few years much attention has been given in England to the edible fungi, and societies and clubs have been formed for the purpose of making the useful species better known by means of exhibitions, excursions, and dinners, at which the various edible fungi take the place of meats. So im- portant is this subject regarded in England that in 1873 the royal horticultural society held an exhibition at which prizes were awarded for collections of both edible and poisonous fungi. The list of species which may be used as food is now large, but the great obstacle to the popularizing of them is the difficulty of dis- tinguishing between the safe and dangerous ones. In America they have for the most part been regarded as noisome and disgusting by the great mass of the people ; they have been usually despised as the unsightly evi- dences of decay, rather than eagerly collected as -delicious food, which many of them are. During the late civil war the Rev. M. A. Cur- tis of Society Hill, S. C., who had long been our best instructed mycologist, turned his at- tention to the fungi as a source of food supply, and found that a great number of our native species were not only edible but highly palata- ble. He embodied his observations in a work, but unhappily died without seeing its publica- tion. The mushroom proper (agaricus cam- pestris) grows wild in old fields and pastures, but is propagated by planting its- spawn, which is the mycelium of the plant, in hot- beds. Although this is the most widely used, many other species are equally excellent. The truffle (tuber cibariuln) grows beneath the ground, and is eaten with avidity by differ- ent animals. (See MUSHKOOM, and TRUFFLE.) Their reputation as aphrodisiacs is thought to be unfounded, having its origin in the old doc- trine of resemblances. Polyporus tuberaster grows from the celebrated fungus stone pietra funghia, which is a mass of earth traversed by the mycelium of the plant; the latter is watered from time to time, and produces suc- cessive crops. The heads of poplar trees are watered in autumn, and they then bear the agaricus caudicinus, greatly esteemed. Blocks of the hazel tree are singed over straw and watered, and they produce in abundance the polyporus corylinus. Among other species eaten, the principal are agaricus prynulus, orcella, procerus, and exquisitus, lactarus de- liciosus, cantharellus cibarius, boletus edulis, marasmius oreades, hydnum repandum, Jistuli- na hepatica, morcJiella esculenta, and helvella crispa. These are all fleshy fungi. Some of the most virulent poisons are found among fungi, and many fatal accidents have arisen from the eating of poisonous species, yet fun- gi which are known to be ordinarily inju- rious are eaten with impunity by some. Eye meal containing large quantities of ergot pro-