572

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

Order 3. Fun'gi, Juss .— The Mushroom Tribe.

Essential Character. — Plants consisting of cells and fibres, always springing fromorganized, and generally decayed or decaying substances, not perfected when im-mersed in water, bearing reproductive sporidia, either externally or internally, nakedor inclosed in variously-formed cells, many of which frequently concur in the repro-duction of a single individual, varying extremely in substance and duration, gene-rally soft and juicy, sometimes exceedingly hard, with or without a central gelatinousnucleus, or dry and powdery (Berkeley).

Properties. —Extremely variable : some fungi being highly nutritious, others verydeleterious. No anatomical characters are known by which the poisonous can bedistinguished from the esculent ones. A few species only have been used in medicine,and these are not uniform in their properties. The proximate principles peculiar tothis order which have been examined are—1, Fungin, a nitrogenous, bighly-nutri-tious woody matter; 2, Amanilin, the active ingredient of some of the poisonousAgarici; 3, Boletic acid; 4, Fungic acid. Mushroom sugar has been found identicalwith mannite. The active principle of ergot of rye (ergotin) may not perhaps residein the fungus (Ergotcetia abortifaciens) , but in the morbid growth which it givesrise to.

Ergotce'tia abortifa!ciens, Pereira .—The abor'tifacient Ergotce'tia.

Sex. Si/st. Cryptogamia, Fungi.(Ergota, Offic.)

History.— This fungus was first described and named by my colleague ,Mr. Quekett , in a paper read before the Linnean Society , Dec. 4, 1838-An abstract of the paper was published in the Lond. Med. Gaz. (xxiii-p. 606 ). Mr. Quekett named the plant Ergotcetia abortans ( Ergotcetia,from Ergot , Fr., Ergota , Ph. Loud., and curia, origin; abortans, in allu'sion to its destroying the germinating power of the grain of grasses, antialso to the medicinal powers of ergot). The sporidia of the plant aredepicted by Phoebus ( Deutschl. kryptog. Giftgewachse, Taf. ix.). Theywere also noticed by Phillipar ( Traite Organogr. et Physioloqico-agTtc-sur VErgot).

Botany. Gen. Char. — Sporidia agglutinated to surface of matrix*

Fic. 76.

A

B

E

F

G

Different views of Ergotcetia abortifaciens.

'aciens.

d, membrane