A plain easy account of British fungi : with descriptions of the esculent and poisonous species.

  • Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt), 1825-1914.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A plain easy account of British fungi : with descriptions of the esculent and poisonous species. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    20/212 (page 4)
    or, to come nearer to some of us, all our books un- touched ? But, in places which many would consider more un- likely still, we may look for and expect to find fungi:* on whitewashed walls, plaster ceilings, dirty glass, old flannel, and old boots and shoes, or leather of any description ; on carpets, mats, and boards, and even the plants in our herbaria must be watched against their ravages. Animals bear them about on their horns and hoofs, and the housefly often carries in its body the vegetating fungus which ultimately deprives it of life. The yeast that is employed for fermenting our bread and our beer is a fungus, as well as the mildew and smut that infest our growing corn. From cesspools and traps the minute' dust-like spores of hidden fungi rise into our dwellings, unseen they float in the air, entering everywhere, depositing them- selves everywhere, and vegetating wherever the con- ditions are favourable to their development. It was strongly affirmed at one time that our cholera visitations were due to these invisible agents, and a large volume has been written on these vegetable parasites on men and animals. “ When our beer becomes mothery, the mother of that mischief is a y | (I ■ * As a difficulty is occasionally experienced amongst amateurs ; with reference to the pronunciation of this word in its plural \ form, we may remind them, that in the singular the g should be ] hard, as in gum, whilst in the plural fungi has the g soft, as Fun-ji. It may be permitted us to protest against such a bar- j barism as f unguses, which has sometimes been employed as the plural of fungus.