FUNGI, mushrooms. The name of one of the seven families, or tribes, into which all vegetables are divided by Linnmus in his "PhilosophiaBotanica." In the sexual system they constitute the fourth order of the class Cryptogamia. It is the name also of the fifty-eight order ofthe "Frag ments." These plants are rarely branch. ed, sometimes creep, but are most corn. monly erect. Such as are furnished with branches have them of a light spongy substance like cork. Mushrooms differ from the fuci, in that those, which, like the fuci, have their seeds contained in capsules, are not branched as that nu merous class of sea-weed is. The great est part of mushrooms have no root ; some, in their stead, have a number of fibres, which, by their inosculations, frequently form a net with unequal meshes, some of which produce plants similar to their parent vegetable. The stamina in these plants are still undeter mined. The seeds are either spread over the surface of the plant, or placed in cAvities which are open, and resem ble the open capsules of some of the fuci. In mushrooms which are branch
d, the seeds are frequently visible by the naked eye, and always to be distinctly ob. served with the assistance of a good mi. See Aolatic, &c.
These plants, particularly the powder of the lycoperdon, puff-ball, mixed into a paste with white of egg, are very astrir, gent, and of familiar use for stopping vio lent haemorrhages. As a vegetable food, they are, at best, suspicious. Several fun gi are rank poison. Agaric is on excres cence found upon the trunks and large branches of several trees, but chiefly upon the larch, and some oaks. It is of two sorts, the male and female ; the former is yellow, hard, and woody, and used for dyeing black ; the latter is covered with a yellow bark, and white within : it tastes sweet at first, but becomes bitter after be ing held a short time in the mouth. This is the sort used in medicine.
FUR, or FURS, in commerce. See Ftran.