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LES. XXVI. FUNGI, OR FUNGOUS PLANTS. (THALLOGENS.)

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1. Agaricus pro'cerus, Giant ag'aric, xxi. 9, w. and br., 6 in., gardens. 2. Aga'ricus pru'nulus, French mushroom, xxi. 9, white, 1 in., woods. 3. Aga'ricus bulbo'sus, Radish-scented mushroom, xxi. 9, br., 4 in., among grass. 4. Aga'ricus squarro'sus, Squarrose ag'aric, xxi. 9, rusty-iron color, 2 in., roots of trees. 5. Agaricus flav'idus, Yellow ag'aric (eatable), xxi. 9, pale yellow, 2 in., trunks of trees. 6. Aga'ricus te'ner, Brittle galera, xxi. 9, y. and br., 4 in., grassy places. 7. Aga'ricus campes'tris, Common mushroom, xxi. 9, whitish, pink below, 3 in., cultivated in gardens. 8. Polypo'rus gigante'us, Beech-tree toadstool, xxi. 9, pale brown, 20 in., on beech-trees. 9. Tu'ber ciba'rium, Comnon truffle, xxi. 9, brown, 14 in., under ground. 10. Phal'lus cani'nus, Scentless morel, xxi. 9, pk, 4 in. 11. Asco'phora muce'do, a common mould, xxi. 9, in.

1. UNDER the name Fungi1 botanists comprehend not only the various races of mushrooms, toad-stools, and similar productions, but a large number of microscopic plants forming the appearances called mouldiness, mildew, smut, rust on the straw of grains, dry rot in wood, and blight in corn. Many of them are mischievous parasitical2 plants, found wherever there is decaying vegetation; and they sometimes grow upon animals, and even upon the hand and in the lungs of man.

2. They often spring up and develop with remarkable rapidity; and it has been said that fungous vegetation has been found on iron which but a few hours before had been red hot in the forge. Their mode of fructification is doubtless similar to that already described for ferns and other cryptogamia, except that the whole plant is a mass of reproductive matter; and so minute are the germs or seeds of parasitic fungi as to

defy the power of the microscope; and hence it is thought that they circulate in the sap of vegetables and in the blood of animals. When dried masses of them are set free they resemble thin smoke, as in the powder of puff-balls; and so light are they that it is difficult to conceive a place from which they can be excluded.

3. The variety of forms and tints of this curious family of plants is most numerous. Some of them, called the bolēti, exhibit, when broken, a remarkable change of color, the white or yellowish tint becoming instantly of a vivid blue. Some are nearly fluid, while others are like paper, leather, or cork. There is a kind which vegetates in dark mines far from the light of day, and which is remarkable for its phosphorescent properties. In the coal-mines near Dresden these plants are described as giving those places the air of an enchanted castle: the roof, walls, and pillars are entirely covered with them, and their beautiful light is almost dazzling to the eye.

4. In size, too, the fungi vary from minute specks to masses several feet in circumference. The most wonderful thing about mushrooms is the rapidity of their growth and of their propagation. Puff-balls have grown six inches in diameter in a single night. Notwithstanding the soft and cellular structure of the plant, they have grown in glass vessels until they have broken them; and even heavy stones have been raised by numerous fungi growing under them.

5. Unlike other plants, fungi absorb oxygen from the air, and exhale carbonic acid. Many mushrooms are very poisonous, while others are esteemed valuable as articles of food. A curious fungous plant, called the truffle, grows entirely under ground. It is highly esteemed in Europe as an article of food, but it has never been successfully cultivated. It grows in Virginia and North Carolina, where it is known as Indian bread or Indian loaf, but more generally by the name of Tuckahoe. Tuckahoe, when fresh, has an acrid taste, but becomes edible3 when dry. Tinder or spunk is a kind of mushroom of the genus Agaric.4 Various kinds of fungi, besides our common puff-ball, have been used to stop bleeding, and also for many medicinal purposes. The poet Delille has told us in verse of

"The potent agaric,4 to wounds applied,

That stops the gushing of the sanguine tide;
Whose spongy substance to its bosom takes
The crackling spark, as from the flint it breaks."

6. A fungus of remarkable intoxicating properties, similar in appearance to our mushroom, grows in Siberia. After eat

ing freely of it, cheerfulness is first produced, then the face becomes flushed, and giddiness and drunkenness follow in the same way as from the use of alcoholic drinks. In some it provokes to unusual activity, and stimulates to bodily exertion. When taken in large doses it produces violent spasms. So very exciting to the nervous system in many individuals is this fungus, that the effects are often very ludicrous. A talkative person can not keep silence, and one fond of music is perpetually singing; and if a person under its influence wishes to step over a straw, he will make a jump sufficient to clear the trunk of a tree.

"O that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains."

1 FUN'-ĠI, the plural of Fun'-gus (fung'-3 ED'-I-BLE, eatable; good for food.
gus).
4 AG'-A-RIC, a genus of fungi.

PAR-A-SIT'-IC-AL, pertaining to a plant
that grows and lives on another.

LESSON XXVII.-ALGE, OR SEA-WEEDS.

(THALLOGENS.)

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1. F'u cus na'tans, or vesiculo'sus, Bladdery fucus, xxi. 7, ol. gr., 24 f., floating masses, ocean. 2. Fu'cus canalicula'tus, Channeled fucus, xxi. 7, y. and ol., 6 f., ocean. (The ashes of the fucus produce the kelp or potash of commerce.) 3. Sporoch'nus peduncula'tus, xxi. 7, lt. gr., 6 f.: a portion magnified. 4. Chon'dria pinnatifi'da, Pepper dulse (this is eaten in Scotland), xxi. 7, purplish, 6 f. 5. Laminaria esculen'ta, Sea tangle (eatable), xxi. 7, br., 60 f. 6. Confer'va glomerata, Clustered conferva, xxi. 7, bt. gr., 1 f. a filament magnified. 7. Cladoste'phus spongio'sus, Spongy conferva, xxi. 7, gr., 3 f. a portion magnified. 8. Alcyonid'ium diaph'anum (a fleshy mass), xxi. 7, y., 6 f. 9. Echinella articulo'ta, Floating film: magnified. The small stars show the natural size: gr.

How various the shades of marine vegetation,

Thrown here the rough flints and sea-pebbles among!

The feathered conferva of deepest carnation,

The dark purple sloke, and the olive sea-thong.-CHARLOTTE SMITH.

1. Under the division of Algae, or Sea-weeds, botanists have included a great number of flowerless plants, inhabiting both salt and fresh water, but chiefly the former. Though simple in structure, and but little known to the world generally, they number several thousand species, and embrace a great variety in size, form, and extent of development, from mere microscopic cells floating on the surface of water, to vast submarine forests of the most luxuriant vegetation. In their lowest forms some of these cellular plants approach so nearly the boundary between vegetable and animal life, that it is impossible to tell where the one ends and the other begins.

2. Most persons have doubtless noticed a green mucous2 substance that collects on the surface of stones constantly moistened by water. This constitutes some of the lowest forms of algal vegetation, consisting of little more than minute vegetable cells. Such sometimes spread over the ocean for miles in extent, giving to it their own peculiar color. The Red Sea has derived its name from a minute fungous plant which sometimes covers its waters, as with a thin layer of fine red dust, as far as the eye can reach.

3. But go to the North Sea, and a great advance in this kind of vegetable structure may be found. There may be seen a thread-like species3 of sea-weed, thirty or forty feet in length, not larger than a pipe-stem, attached at one end to the bottom or shore, and the rest supported by the water; and in the neighborhood of the Orkneys it forms meadows through which a boat forces its way with difficulty. But even this is nothing as compared with the prodigious extent of another thread-like species, which is reported to be more than a thousand feet in length; while still another kind, in tropical seas, attains a length of twenty-five or thirty feet, with a trunk thicker than a man's arm.

4. Although most sea-weeds attach themselves to rocks or other solid masses, frequenting the shores or shallows rather than the open sea, there are some exceptions, among which one of the most remarkable is the Sargasso or Gulf Weed, which floats on the surface of the ocean. 66 Midway in the Atlantic Ocean," says Commander Maury, "is the Sargasso Sea, covering an area equal in extent to the Mississippi Valley, and so thickly matted over with Gulf weed that the speed of vessels passing through it is much retarded. When the

companions of Columbus saw it, they thought it marked the limits of navigation, and became alarmed. To the eye at a little distance it seems substantial enough to walk upon. Columbus first found this weedy sea in his voyage of discovery; and it has remained to this day, moving up and down, and changing its position according to the seasons, the storms, and the winds."

5. But, in addition to this "weedy sea," the ocean every where bears on its bosom sea-weeds torn from the rocks by the ever "toiling surges," and driven hither and thither by the winds and waves. Yet even these, although among the lowest forms of vegetable life, have not been found an unfitting theme for the poet, as the following lines will show:

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When descends on the Atlantic
The gigantic
Storm-wind of the equinox,

Landward in his wrath he scourges
The toiling surges,

Laden with sea-weed from the rocks;
From Bermuda's reefs; from edges
Of sunken ledges

Of some far off, bright Azōre;
From Bahama, and the dashing,
Silver-flashing

Surges of San Salvador;

Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,
On the shifting

Currents of the restless main.
Till in sheltered coves, and reach
Of sandy beaches,

All have found repose again.

So when storms of wild emotion
Strike the ocean

Of the poet's soul, ere long,

From each cave and rocky fastness,

In its vastness,

Floats some fragment of a song,
Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,
On the shifting

Currents of the restless heart.
Till at length, in books recorded.

They, like hoarded

Household words, no more depart.-LONGFELLOW.

11. Of all tribes of plants the Algæ are commonly reputed the least useful. Yet neither in regard to the general economy of nature, nor as to the wants of man, are they to be so considered. They supply food to a large number of marine animals, which browse upon them as those inhabiting the land do upon its most luxuriant pastures. Cattle have been very profitably fed on some species abundant on northern coasts, and have even become so fond of this diet as greedily to seek for it. Many kinds furnish a wholesome and palatable food for man, and are used for this purpose by the poorer classes

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