UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871 [PAGE 214]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871
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206 Much study has been bestowed upon these plants, and very many interesting facts observed. Owing to their injurious habits, they have been looked upon as the vandals of the vegetable world. They are outcasts from good vegetable society; among plants they are the fallen angels, wicked and fiendish, plotting for the ruin of the world. But their work is not wholly destructive. Their office as scavengers has been mentioned before, and in this we find their best service to man. The mushroom, morrel, etc., are largely used for food. Mylitta Australis forms the native bread of the Australians, and a Cittaria, growing upon the twigs of trees, is one of the staple articles of food to the Fuegians. The list of good qualities is, however, short, and we turn to the more popular if not more pleasing task of berating and denouncing them. Some species of mushroom, like plants, are very poisonous, as the ergot of rye is well known to be. Another, similar to the mushroom, is used by the inhabitants of Kamtschatka instead of, or with whisky, for the purpose of producing intoxication, which it does effectually. Moulds upon articles of food are either very unwholesome in themselves, or induce an unwholesome state in the substance. Neither is the effect entirely avoided by scraping off the mouldy surface, for, quite invisible, the mycelium often penetrates to great depths, and spreads itself far and wide. Whether Fungi produce disease in plants and animals directly, or are themselves only a remit of disease, is a question often asked and variously answered. Some observers hold one and some the other opinion, to this day; but the truth undoubtedly lies between them. Some species are positively known to attack, without scruple, the healthiest living tissues. With these, all that is required for their propagation is to scatter the spores upon the surface usually attacked. Many species have been tried upon both plants and animals, with the result mentioned. Smut in wheat can be readily induced by sowing the spores with the grain. Many leaf-blights can be more directly traced to the germinating spores. Muscardine, the silk-worm malady, can as certainly be produced by dropping the spores of a mould upon the outside of the body of the caterpillar, as a crop of corn can be produced by placing the seed in suitable soil. But it may be asked, "How can the germinating thread from the spore, or the latter body, itself gain entrance to the tissues upon which it preys ?" As a rule, the spores themselves do not gain such admission, but when we consider the immense force exerted by other germinating seeds, pushing up lumps of earth, many times their own bulk, and then think of the delicate cell walls of most plants, and the loose