For other uses, we can only allude to amadou, or German tinder, which is prepared in Northern Europe from _Polyporus fomentarius_, Fr., cut in slices, dried, and beaten until it is soft. This substance, besides being used as tinder, is made into warm caps, chest protectors, and other articles. This same, or an allied species of _Polyporus_, probably _P. igniarius_, Fr., is dried and pounded as an ingredient in snuff by the Ostyacks on the Obi. In Bohemia some of the large Polyporei, such as _P. igniarius_ and _P. fomentarius_, have the pores and part of the inner substance removed, and then the pileus is fastened in an inverted position to the wall, by the part where originally it adhered to the wood. The cavity is then filled with mould, and the fungus is used, with good effect, instead of flower-pots, for the cultivation of such creeping plants as require but little moisture.[AR] The barren mycelioid condition of _Penicillium crustaceum_, Fr., is employed in country districts for the domestic manufacture of vinegar from saccharine liquor, under the name of the "vinegar plant." It is stated that _Polysaccum crassipes_, D. C.,[AS] is employed in the South of Europe to produce a yellow dye; whilst recently _Polyporus sulfureus_, Fr., has been recommended for a similar purpose. _Agaricus muscarius_, Fr., the fly-agaric, known to be an active poison, is used in decoction in some parts of Europe for the destruction of flies and bugs. Probably _Helotium æruginosum_, Fr.,[AT] deserves mention here, because it stains the wood on which it grows, by means of its diffuse mycelium, of a beautiful green tint, and the wood thus stained is employed for its colour in the manufacture of Tonbridge ware. This completes the list, certainly of the most important, of the fungi which are of any direct use to humanity as food, medicine, or in the arts. As compared with lichens, the advantage is certainly in favour of fungi; and even when compared with algæ, the balance appears in their favour. In fact, it may be questioned whether, after all, fungi do not present a larger proportion of really useful species than any other of the cryptogams; and without any desire to disparage the elegance of ferns, the delicacy of mosses, the brilliancy of some algæ, or the interest which attaches to lichens, it may be claimed for fungi that in real utility (not uncombined with injuries as real) they stand at the head of the cryptogams, and in closest alliance with the flowering plants. [A] Badham, Dr. C. D., "A Treatise on the Esculent Funguses of England," 1st edition (1847), p. 81, pl. 4; 2nd edition, edited by F. Currey, M.A. (1863), p. 94, pl. 4; Cooke, M. C., "A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi," 1st edition (1862), p. 44.