FUNFKIRCHEN-FUNGI.

as well as one of the most pleasantly situated and beautiful towns of Hungary. It formerly possessed a university. The most important of its buildings are the large and imposing cathedral, the bishop's palace, an Italian structure, the town-house, lyceum, gymnasium, seminary, and the churches, which are numerous and beautiful. It has important tanneries, woollen and flannel weaving and silk-spinning; produces wine, fruit, and tobacco, has coal-mines and ironworks, and a flourishing trade in hogs and gall-nuts. Pop. 15,900.

FUNGI, an order of acotyledonous or cryptogamous plants, containing a very great number of species, nearly 5000 being known, whilst it is probable that the whole number existing is very much greater. They are amongst the lowest forms of vegetable life, and some naturalists of no mean reputation have entertained the notion that they spring into existence in certain circumstances, not from germs previously existing, but from a mucus capable of organisation, or through changes in the cells of more highly organised plants, and of animals in states of disease or of decay; an opinion which, however, is more generally rejected as having no foundation in accurate observation, as not necessary to explain the readiness with which certain fungi almost invariably spring up in certain circumstances-from which is derived the chief argument in its favour, as opposed to all analogy of ascertained facts, and as rendered improbable by the abundant provision which all the fungi possess for the perpetuation and diffusion of the species. Fungi are cellular plants, the cells sometimes elongated so as to become filaments. They consist of a thallus, which spreads in a matrix, and is nourished by it, and from which stems are thrown up into the air, bearing the fructification. The organs connected with fructification are often the principal part of fungi, and the thallus very small, consisting of a few cottony threads, or closely compacted cells, or even altogether undiscernible. Not unfrequently, however, the proportion of the thallus is comparatively great, and in circumstances unfavourable to the development of the organs of fructification, it extends itself greatly in the matrix, as in the case of Dry Rot, Ergot, &c. (q. v.), and even of the common mushroom. The thallus of fungi is called mycelium (Gr., mykes, a mushroom), and in mushrooms and some other kinds is further popularly known as the spawn. Fungi are nearly related to algæ and to lichens, but differ from both in deriving their nourishment from the earth or from the bodies upon which they grow, not from the medium by which they are surrounded. They differ also from lichens in their generally much softer substance and their fugacious character; also in being quite destitute of green granules (gonidia) in the thallus, which are characteristic of that order. They differ from algae in not living immersed in water or other liquid, but producing their fructification in air. The lowest forms of fungi, and the lowest forms of algæ, are sometimes, however, not easily distinguished; and the mycelium of some fungi is capable of spreading in a liquid, and assuming a modified appearance extremely resembling that of some algæ. It is supposed to be the presence of the mycelium of certain fungi which makes liquors 'mothery;' and to a similar cause is ascribed the ropiness of the dough in some bakehouses, an evil not easily cured. -From other plants in general, fungi differ in their chemical composition, which is remarkably nitrogenous, and assimilates them to animal organisms; whilst unlike other plants, they do not absorb carbonic acid from the air, and give out oxygen, but, like animals, absorb oxygen, and give out carbonic acid; so that some naturalists have proposed to

constitute for them a distinct kingdom of nature intermediate between the animal and the vegetable. Fungi are very various in size, many being scarcely visible without a microscope, whilst others are some feet in diameter. Even the same species, however, often exhibits great variety, not only in size, but in other particulars, according to the different circum stances of its growth, causing great difficulty to the botanist, whilst further difficulty arises from the modifications of imperfectly developed mycelium, of which many spurious genera have been constituted. A great resemblance in general appearance to fungi is sometimes exhibited by diseased portions of leaves, &c., and by the secretions caused by the attacks of insects.-When the spore (seed) of a fungus germinates, it sends out radiating filaments, which generally branch and interlace, and portions of this mycelium removed to another favourable situation, grow there, so that fungi are propagated by this means as higher plants are propagated by their tubers or by the division of their roots. The fungi of simplest structure or lowest organisation consist of nothing more, when they have reached their fullest development, than masses of spheroidal cells, spores, breaking up into a fine powder, as in some of the small parasitic species which are very injurious to corn. Sometimes these cells are united into jointed threads. In species of rather higher organisation, the plant consists of jointed threads, but the spores are formed in the enlarged terminal joints, and are dispersed by their bursting. In the higher kinds, the spores are produced in or on peculiar organs of extremely various shape and character. In some, as puff-balls, the whole interior of the plant is filled with the fructification. In agarics, boleti, morels, &c., the fructification takes place on a particular membrane, a part of the external surface of the plant, called the hymenium, variously situated (in agarics on the under side of the pileus or cap), the extent of which is often greatly increased by wrinkles, plates or gills, pits, pores, &c. These form the highest division of fungi, called Hymenomycetes, in the system of Fries, the greatest continental authority in mycology, as this department of botany is sometimes termed. Berkeley, who, without any near rival, occupies the first place among the mycologists of Britain, divides fungi into two classes;' the first class not having the spores enclosed in tubular sacs (asi) or vesicles, and containing the 'orders' Hymenomycetes (agarics, boleti, &c.), Gasteromycetes (puff-balls, &c.), Coniomycetes (rust, smut, &c.), Hyphomycetes (mould, mildew, botrytis, oidium, &c.); the second class containing two orders, Ascomycetes (morels, truffles, &c.), in which the spores are definitely arranged in asci, and Physomycetes (some kinds of mould, plants which grow on fermenting substances, and some of the minute pests of cultivated plants) in which the spores are in vesicles without definite arrangement.

Fungi generally grow in damp situations, but there are many which occur chiefly on dry soils or on dry substances; and some appear in their greatest perfection in the finest summer weather, although many are most abundant in the colder and moister seasons of the year. It has been commonly asserted that they abound more in the colder parts of the world than within the tropics, but it is not improbable that this opinion has its origin merely in imperfect observation of tropical species. The extreme rapidity of their growth, the briefness of their whole existence, the readiness with which they pass into decomposition, and the difficulty of preserving most of them in a form fit for examination, have been great obstacles to their scientific study. It is known, however, that some species are of very wide geographic distribution, whilst others are comparatively

FUNGL

very limited. Some species grow in earth, others in various kinds of putrescent or fermenting animal or vegetable matter, many in decaying parts of trees or on dead wood, others on diseased animal and vegetable tissues, &c. It appears to be the office of many of them to hasten the decomposition of animal, and more particularly of vegetable substances. Some of the minute kinds appear to be the cause of disease in the higher kinds of plants which they attack, and are formidable to the farmer and the gardener. Some are in like manner destructive to animal life, as in the case of the Muscardine (q. v.) or Silk-worm Rot, and certain species of Spheria which grow from living caterpillars. See ENTOPHYTES.

Some fungi are remarkably phosphorescent. Thus the undeveloped mycelium of some kind produces a very beautiful luminosity in some German coalmines; and a species of agaric (Agaricus Gardneri), growing on palms in Brazil, shines brightly in the night. Agaricus olearius, a native of the south of Europe, is also luminous.

them perfectly safe. So valuable are fungi esteemed, that some species are frequently cultivated. The cultivation of the Common Mushroom (q. v.) is familiar to us in Britain, but other species of Agaricus, Boletus, &c., are plentifully raised in some parts of the continent of Europe, by watering the ground in places appropriate for them with water in which mature plants abounding in spores have been bruised; others are obtained by merely placing in favourable circumstances substances in which their spores are already contained. Thus, a species of Polyporus, much esteemed, is procured in Italy by moistening a porous stone (Ital., Pietra funghaia) over which a little earth has been scattered; another species of Polyporus by slightly charring and then watering blocks of the wood of the common hazel; a species of Agaricus, by cutting off and then watering the heads of black poplar trees; and another Agaricus, by placing the grounds of coffee in circumstances favourable for its growth.

It is a common notion, but utterly destitute of The chemical examination of fungi yields in large foundation, that dangerous fungi may be distinquantity a substance called Fungine, which, how-guished from those which it is safe to eat by their ever, is now regarded as consisting of cellulose and discolouring a silver spoon if they are stirred with fatty matter, several other nitrogenous substances, it whilst they are being cooked. Nor is greater an acid called Fungic Acid, a kind of sugar, &c. dependence to be placed on the rule that the more The poisonous properties of some are ascribed to readily deliquescent fungi are poisonous; nor on an alkaloid called Amanitine. Others appear to peculiarities of colour of the flesh or juice, except in owe their poisonous character to an acrid vola- so far as these characters may avail for the discrimitile substance. Many of the smaller fungi are nation of particular species, the qualities of which important because of the injury which they cause are known. The edible fungi have generally an to crops, timber, &c. A few species are used in agreeable smell and taste, whilst some of the poisonmedicine, of which the only one really important ous kinds are offensive both to the nostrils and the is Ergot of Rye. One or two are used as tinder palate, but no trustworthy general rule can be laid (see AMADOU), Moxa (q. v.), &c. The smoke pro- down on these points; and some of those which are duced by burning the dust (spores) of ripened very pungent and acrid when raw, become bland puff-balls has anesthetic properties, and is used and wholesome when cooked, their acridity being for stupifying bees. Polyporus squamosus cut into dissipated by heat. slices makes the best of razor-strops. But the chief economical use of fungi is for food, and in the manufacture of the sauce called Ketchup (q. v.).

Edible Fungi.-Many fungi of the sub-orders Hymenomycetes, Gasteromycetes, and Ascomycetes are edible; and some of them are much esteemed as delicacies, whilst in many countries they constitute an important part of the food of the people. In Britain, very few are used, many of those species which are most esteemed on the continent of Europe being utterly disregarded, and indeed classed in popular estimation with toad-stools as poisonous. The truth appears to be, not that the greater number are poisonous, and only a few edible, but that the noxious species are comparatively few, the principal danger arising from the similarity of some of the poisonous and some of the edible agarics, and from the liability of some of the edible species to acquire poisonous properties in particular situations and circumstances. This is notably the case with the common mushroom (Agaricus campestris), which is far more generally used in Britain than any other edible fungus, but of which some varieties are unsafe, apparently in consequence of the circumstances of their growth. From the markets of Rome, and other cities of Italy, where numerous species of fungi are extensively sold, this species is rigorously excluded. So important an article of food are fungi in Italy, that in the market of Rome alone they are supposed to be sold to the value of about £4000 a year. For weeks, both in spring and in autumn, fungi form the principal and almost the sole food of multitudes of the poor in Italy, Germany, and France; and besides those which are eaten fresh, great quantities are used dried or preserved in oil, vinegar, or brine. The soaking of fungi in vinegar or brine takes away the acrid qualities of some which are dangerous when fresh, and renders

Among the most important edible fungi are:

Hymenomycetes.-The Common Mushroom, Champignon, and numerous other agarics and fungi closely allied to true agarics, as species of Cortinaria, Can tharellus, &c. These will be noticed in the article MUSHROOM.

A number of species of Boletus (q. v.), and of Poly porus. See AMADOU. Fistulina hepatica. See Fis TULINA. Several species of Hydnum (q. v.). Several species of Clavaria, some of which are found in

Britain; beautiful fungi, with a thickish stem which divides into numerous small branches. It is said that all the species of this genus are esculent, although some are very superior to the rest in flavour and delicacy. One species (C. flava) is popularly known in Germany as Ziegenbart or Goat's-beard. They grow on the ground in woods and pastures.

Gasteromycetes. - Different kinds of Puff-ball (q. v.), in a young state, and whilst still fleshy throughout.

Ascomycetes.-Different species of More (h

FUNGIBLES-FUR AND FURRIERY.

Helvella (q. v.), Vera, Peziza, &c.
Truffle (q.v.) and allied species.
winii, which grows on living branches of South
American beeches, and forms a principal part of
the food of the natives of Tierra del Fuego during
some months of the year.

The Common, called Polypus (q. v.). The growths to which the Cyttaria Dar- term fungus is chiefly applied are those which have the characters of Cancer (q. v.); especially fungus hæmatodes, a very dangerous variety. But fungus has yet another application in pathology, to those minute incrustations and alterations of the skin which are dependent upon the growth of vegetable parasites, as Favus, Ringworm (q. v.), &c.

It is a curious fact that the poisonous properties of mushrooms vary with climate, and probably with the season of the year at which they are gathered. Another circumstance deserving of notice is, that is the iron tube designed to convey away above the FUNNEL (Lat. fundo, to pour), in steam-vessels, by idiosyncracy some individuals are liable to be deck the smoke and gases set at liberty during the seriously affected even by those species which are combustion of fuel in the boiler-flues, and also, from usually regarded as innocent. Some species which its height, to afford a sufficient draught to the are poisonous in this country, are used freely by the Russians; it appears they are in the habit of salt-size; and in men-of-war, usually telescopic, so that, In large ships, the funnel is of great ing, boiling, and compressing them before they are by simple mechanism, it may be withdrawn during eaten; and this may in some instances suffice to an action from the chance of injury by cannon-shot. account for their having no noxious effects.

Symptoms and Effects.-The noxious species of mushrooms act sometimes as narcotics, at others as irritants. It would appear from the reports of several cases, that when the narcotic symptoms are excited, they come on soon after the meal at which the mushrooms have been eaten, and that they are chiefly manifested by giddiness, dimness of sight, and debility. The person appears as if intoxicated, and there are singular illusions of sense. Spasms and convulsions have been occasionally witnessed among the symptoms when the case has proved fatal. In some instances, the symptoms of poisoning have not commenced until thirty hours after the meal; and in these, narcotism followed the symptoms of irritation. It might be supposed that these variable effects were due to different properties in the mushrooms, but the same fungi have acted on members of the same family, in one case like irritants, and in another like narcotics. In most cases, recovery takes place, especially if vomiting be early induced. In the few instances which have proved fatal, there has been greater or less inflammation in the stomach and bowels, with congestion of the vessels of the brain.

Treatment.-The free use of emetics and castor oil.'-Taylor On Poisons.

The esculent fungi of England are the subject of a work by Dr Badham, who enthusiastically recommends them to more general use.

FU'NGIBLES. In the law of Rome, the contract of loan was divided into mutuum and commodatum, a division which has been adopted by the law of Scotland, and by most of the continental systems which are founded on the civil law. The former had reference to objects which admitted of being estimated by weight, measure, or number, or which could not be used without being given away or consumed. These objects, consisting of money, corn, wine, oil, and the like, could be used only by him who possessed the full right of ownership, and consequently the contract of mutuum transferred the ownership to the borrower, who became bound to return, not the object borrowed, but its equivalent. Objects of this nature, from the fact that they were got rid of one for another (fungantur), were called fungibles. The other class of movable objects, again, to which the Roman contract of commodatum, or hire, properly so called, applied, were transferred to the borrower on condition that he should return the same individual objects to the lender.

FUNGUS (Lat. a mushroom) is a term applied in pathology and surgery with several significations. Thus, any excrescence from a surface of skin, or mucous membrane, or even from deeper parts, is sometimes called a fungus, more especially if it have a soft mushroom-like character, and a broad short pedicle. When the pedicle is long and narrow, it is

furnaces.

FUNNEL, a conical vessel terminating in a tube, and used for pouring liquids into narrow-mouthed vessels, and in laboratories for filtering. See FILTER. For common purposes, they are made of tin-plate or copper, but when for corrosive liquids, they are made of glass or earthenware. In some parts of Great Britain, as in the midland counties of England, a funnel is called a 'tun-dish;' in other parts, a

'filler.'

FUR is the term applied to the incrustation which is formed in the interior of vessels (teakettles, boilers of steam-engines, &c.) when calcareous water has been for a considerable time boiled in them. Many spring waters contain carbonate of lime held in solution by carbonic acid. When this water is boiled, the acid is expelled, and the carbonate is deposited, often in association with a little sulphate, forming a lining more or less coherent upon the sides of the vessel. In steam-boilers, this may be prevented by the addition of a small quantity of sal-ammoniac (hydrochlorate of ammonia) to the water; double decomposition takes place, carbonate of ammonia being formed and volatilised, while chloride of calcium remains in solution.

FUR AND FURRIERY. The skins of animals, having hair or fur as a coating, have been used in Europe as an article of clothing for many centuries. Since European countries, however, have become more and more cleared and inhabited, fur-bearing animals have nearly disappeared; and the supply is now chiefly obtained from other regions, especially

North America.

described under their proper headings: we shall All the chief fur-bearing animals will be found do little more here than barely enumerate them. Ermine fur is of a pure white, except the tip of the tail, which is black. The spotted appearance of this fur is not natural; it is produced by sewing the black tail-tips on the white fur at certain spots. obtained chiefly from Northern Russia and Siberia, Stoat fur is a kind of inferior ermine. Sable fur, is valued in proportion to the darkness of its colour. Marten fur, especially that of a rich dark-brown olive colour, is much sought for. Fiery-fox fur, brought chiefly from the north-eastern part of Asia, is admired both for its brilliant fiery colour and for culars from the kind just named, is much sought its fineness. Red-fox fur, differing in some partiafter by the Chinese for trimmings, linings, and robes. Silver-fox fur has a peculiar lustrous silver-gray colour. Nutria fur, belonging to the animal called the coypou, is brought largely from South America, chiefly as a cheap substitute for beaver. Sea-otter fur has been known in Europe about a century and a half, being obtained from the otters which frequent the seas washing the Asiatic shores of the Russian dominions; it varies from a beautiful brown to jetblack, and is very fine, soft, and glossy. Seal fur is

FURFURAMIDE-FURLOUGH.

FURNEAUX-FÜRST.