SPONGE n.
e. (Chem.) See under Platinum. -- Pyrotechnical sponge, a substance made of mushrooms or fungi, which are boiled in water, dried, and beaten, then put in a strong lye prepared with saltpeter, and again dried in an oven. This makes the black match, or tinder, brought from Germany. -- Sheep's-wool sponge, a fine and du…
THALLOGEN n.
ass or division of the vegetable kingdom, which includes those flowerless plants, such as fungi, algæ, and lichens, that consist of a thallus only, composed of cellular tissue, or of a congeries of cells, or even of separate cells, and never show a distinction into root, stem, and leaf.
THALLOPHYTA n.
A phylum of plants of very diverse habit and structure, including the algæ, fungi, and lichens. The simpler forms, as many blue-green algæ, yeasts, etc., are unicellular and reproduce vegetatively or by means of asexual spores; in the higher forms the plant body is a thallus, which may be filamentous or may consist of…
TRUFFLE n.
Any one of several kinds of roundish, subterranean fungi, usually of a blackish color. The French truffle (Tuber melanosporum) and the English truffle (T. æstivum) are much esteemed as articles of food. Truffle worm (Zoöl.), the larva of a fly of the genus Leiodes, injurious to truffles. Truffle pig, a pig used for fin…