2

OUTLINES OF BRITISH FUNGOLOGY.

the ash and walnut, which are commonly called Sapt)alls, orthe hard corky kinds, one of which supplies the Amadou ofcommerce; but there is no general conception that the multi-tudes of parasites which grow on dead and living plants, fre-quently inducing disease or decay, the mould which runs overour fruit and provisions, or the yeast of beer and mother ofvinegar, are closely allied productions; if, indeed, the veryexistence of some amongst them is recognized at all. We areobliged, therefore, to have recourse to the Latin languagefor a general word to comprehend the whole tribe, which isdenominated Fungi. An objection, indeed, has been raisedto the term Fungology, which indicates a knowledge of thewhole tribe, as composed at the same time of a Greek andLatin word. The word is however like many other spuriouswords very generally received; and if the objection shouldbe considered insuperable, we have but to substitute that ofMycology, which is at once correct in etymology and compre-hensive enough to include all we wish. The word Fungusmay however in any case be retained as expressing these plantsin common parlance, only we must take care, if we do notuse the more English-looking word Fungal, not to speak, asis too frequently the case, of a Fungi,* which is at once gra-ting to the ear, and utterly intolerable. If Fungus be con-sidered as an English word, as it is used indeed by some ofour older authors, the plural will be Funguses; but there isthen something unpleasing in the sound, and the term Fungiis certainly to be preferred.t

* As, for example, in Phillips’s Prize Essay on the Potato Murrain, Joum.of Royal Agricultural Society, vol. vii. p. 309.

t The French word Champignon was originally scarcely of wider significa-tion than our word Mushroom, though now classical in the sense of Fungi ge-nerally. The German word Pilz (a corruption of Boletus) is used to denotethe softer kinds, while Schwamm generally denotes such Fungi as Polypori.