Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/749

 LYCOX LYCOPERDON 743 it. The chief productions in 1870 were 272,- 668 bushels of wheat, 39,820 of rye, 535,158 of Indian corn, 470,619 of oats, 66,780 of buck- wheat, 193,425 of potatoes, 25,8041bs. of wool, 429,500 of butter, and 28,738 tons of hay. There were 5,591 horses, 7,597 milch cows, 7,772 other cattle, 10,462 sheep, and 12,172 swine. There were 608 manufacturing estab- lishments, having $7,875,938 capital, and an annual product of $9,081,406 ; the most im- portant were 3 of agricultural implements, 4 of brick, 23 of carriages, 11 of clothing, 1 of rectified coal oil, 10 of furniture, 1 of extract of hemlock bark, 6 of iron, 12 of machinery, 7 of brick and stone masonry, 17 of saddlery and harness, 5 of sash, doors, and blinds, 6 of woollen goods, 20 tanneries, 13 currying estab- lishments, 12 flour mills, 8 planing mills, and 121 saw mills. Capital, Williamsport. LYCOff, a Greek philosopher, born in Laodi- cea, Phrygia, about 300 B. C., died in Athens about 226. He was a disciple of Strato, on whose death in 270 he became the head of the peripatetic school in Athens, and for 44 years he presided at the Lyceum. He regarded corpo- ral punishment as injurious to youth, whom he sought to stimulate by feelings of honor and shame. His elocution was so harmonious that Diogenes Laertius says his name was often written Glycon, " the sweet," but this was probably its original form. Cicero and Cle- ment of Alexandria mention a work by Lycon on the limits of good and evil ; Apuleius quotes a treatise of his on the nature of animals ; and a fragment of a work on characters, probably his, is preserved by Rutilius Lupus. LYCOPERDON, a genus of fungi, which in the accepted arrangement is placed in the gastero- mycetes, one of the six divisions into which this immense order is separated, and of which the common puff-ball may be taken as a rep- resentative. As with other fungi, the true vegetative portion, the mycelium, consists of floccose threads, which in the case of the puff- balls spread in the soil ; the portion which ap- pears above ground is that concerned in repro- duction ; in these plants this is more or less globular, and when young is fleshy ; the peridi- um or covering to the mass is of two coats, the outer of which breaks up into warts and scales; as the puff-ball perfects itself, the in- terior loses its fleshy character and becomes a dry mass of threads and exceedingly minute spores, which escape upon the slightest dis- turbance as a cloud of dust from an opening in the coating ; the name puff-ball applied to these plants arises from the form of the pe- ridium and the manner of emitting their spores. About a dozen species are recorded in Schweinitz's synopsis, most of which are also common to Europe. The rapidity with which puff-balls increase in size is remarkable ; a gi- ant puff-ball (L. giganteum) that was less than an inch in diameter at evening, has been known to enlarge to the diameter of a foot by morning. Several species are to be met with in fields, and frequently by the side of little- travelled roads. Within a few years much at- tention has been given in England to fungi as a source of food, and at the various horticultural exhibitions premiums have been awarded for displays of both edible and poisonous species. The " Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club " has been especially efficient in making known the value of kinds not before considered edible, and in the reports of their annual dinners the giant puff-ball occupies a conspicuous place. It is of course only edible while it retains its solid and fleshy character. The late Rev. M. A. Curtis of Society Hill, S. C., paid much at- tention to the fungi as a source of food, and at his death left an unpublished monograph upon the subject. He wrote as follows to a correspondent in England : " The lycoperdon giganteum is also a great favorite with me, as it is indeed with all my acquaintances who have tried it. It has not the high aroma of some others, but it has a delicacy of flavor Giant Puff-ball (Lycoperdon giganteum). that makes it superior to any omelette I have ever eaten. It seems furthermore to be so di- gestible as to adapt it to the most delicate stomachs. This is the South Down of mush- rooms." It is prepared by cutting in slices, dipping these in egg and then in crumbs, and frying, in the same manner that the fruit of the egg plant is cooked. After puff-balls become dark-colored and dry inside they are no longer fit to be eaten, and when mature enough to emit their spores they should be handled with caution; serious consequences have followed the accidental inhalation of the dust-like spores. The fumes of the dry puff-ball when burned have long been known to possess anaes- thetic properties ; they are said by Berkeley to have been used in surgical operations, and their use in stupefying bees is of quite ancient date. The contents of the ball were formerly uped as a styptic or siccative in surgery.